The pupal stage

 
 

Some pupae were found on the twigs of branches that had been pruned a month or so before - these were grown out to obtain the moths. Once we knew what we were looking for it was very easy to find pupal cases on dried twigs on the forest floor - very few have been found up in the branches. So the pupae we found on the pruned branches had pupated after the leaves had withered on the pruned branches.

 

Photos

  1. 1.Pupae that have been removed from their pupal cases.

  2. 2.Pupal cases on an understory twig

  3. 3.Late stage larvae removed from pupal casing before pupation proper.

How long the pupal stage?

pupa attached to an old twig