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Photo#1043287
Proserpinus lucidus ova - Proserpinus lucidus

Proserpinus lucidus ova - Proserpinus lucidus
6-7 miles east of Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo County, California, USA
These eggs were laid by a female I found at my blacklight on January 31st 2013. The female was confined in a paper grocery bag. She laid no eggs the night she was collected. The second night she laid about 200 eggs. The third night she laid 30 eggs. She did not lay any more eggs after this, but stayed alive for a while longer. I placed part of the batch of eggs outside in more natural conditions, and the rest indoors. Those placed indoors mostly hatched one week later, but those placed outside took considerably longer. This photograph was taken on February 8th

awesome!
I am hoping to get some eggs someday if I ever get these moths again..

.
Nice to see these.

The BugGuide software plots the date
that you place in the date field as the time the image was photographed, or the insect in the image was captured, and implies that the date is when someone could see the insect in the wild. This would say to us that Jan 31 should be removed from these images. We would further say that the outside eggs taking longer to develop implies that we could not see these insects in the wild on the dates in your remarks, so we don't think you should replace Jan 31 with Feb 8 either. It seems best just to empty the date field for these images and leave the dates in your remarks. We can do that for you if you like. Unfortunately, it has to be removed separately on each image and can't be done all at once.

 
Thanks for letting me know, n
Thanks for letting me know, no problem, I'll go back and remove the dates.

Also, I have a question, how many lucidus photos should I post? I've been trying to limit the number I post, but I still have some (probably two or three) 5th instar images to post, photos of the pupa, and then some photos of wild larva in their natural habitat [including different color forms, an example or two of their camouflage in their natural habitat, a photograph of one feeding, and the host plants (all 4th and 5th instar)]. This is a lot,
is it way too many? I believe there are few other photos of this species on the web, but will it swamp the species page? I'd be glad to hear any advice.

 
You don't have to worry about swamping the
species page. It is good to have images of the eggs and of each of the instars. Probably two of each instar would be sufficient, but there can always be reasons for posting more: different views, dorsal, lateral, facial, different color forms, prepupal changes, etc. In general we are only interested in the insect. Images of habitat and/or host plant eventually get frassed. That information can be found in the remarks. Obviously an image which shows the insect at good size and the host plant leaf would be fine. But an image where the insect is barely visible in the thumbnail version would probably be removed. But you are the best judge of what might be good. Other editors can tell you their thoughts if they feel you have posted too many.

Also, we will attach some of your images to the Info page for the species. You can email us any text that you would like people to see on the Info page. Thanks for these lovely images and all the IDs you have been giving to the moth images.

 
Thanks for your advice, I'm
Thanks for your advice, I'm just submitting everything I was planning to, and then I can be told if anything is overkill. If so, I'd rather delete photographs of reared larvae of a given instar over photographs of the same instar in the wild.

And thank you for your kind words about my images and identifications, I'm glad to be able to help.

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