Everybody getting sick of me yet? Questions, questions, questions. I found this chrysalis in my garden and brought it home, kept isolated from my home grown ones and have been watching it. Today I saw these tracks. I've raised and am raising around 70 so far this summer and have not seen this on any of mine. If it's OE, does that mean I could have it in other ones or is it some type of parasite that was injected into it?
I surely cannot answer your question... but want to say that is such a beautiful chrystalis! It looks like jade with gold trim.
Somebody explain what OE is to me please. I am a nubie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ophryocystis_elektroscirrha
Maybe this will help.
thank you
Your chrysalis looks to have a string coming from the horizonal gold seam. It could be a parasite, unsure.
I think I had a group of Monarchs infected with OE. I have never had problems like I have this year. Out of seven I had eclose this last week, only two were healthy. Three emerged but had black bodies and wrinkled wings, unable to fly. Two turned dark as though they were ready to emerge and never did, waited an extra day. I destroyed them today. All of those were taken from the plants after about the second or third instar. I had been on vacation and unable to rescue them immediately.
Did I not read the info thoughroughly? I didn't see where we can do anything to plants to avoid the OE?
BB,
I too see the little thread- likely Tachynid infestation but on the pic further down of the chrysalis infected w/ OE, I think I see a little thread too. When I spot infected chrysalids, I wrap them and discard them in the trash bag. Once you have an OE infected chrysalis in your butterfly container, the box has to be disinfected. The caterpillars pick up spores from the milkweed and can spread them all over your box as they wander around. By isolating Monarch cats that looked blurry, I have found that even w/o a microscope, I can frequently identify infected cats. (See info later down) Now when I see one, I kill & discard it. I've also found that if I take a picture, I can frequently see better than w/ my naked eye. I may do better when my new glasses come in but the macro camera really helps.
Here is a link w/ some good examples http://www.mymonarchguide.com/2007/11/oe-on-caterpillars.html
Here are some links from http://davesgarden.com/members/buyabutterfly/ (Edith Smith). Her website http://buyabutterfly.com/ has excellent educational pictures of Monarch & other butterfly diseases & enemies including parasitoids. She has a farm and nursery where she also conducts seminars for professionals and hobbiests on raising butterflies. Edith is very generous @ sharing educational information and has THE most complete, research based, site for how to raise butterflies safely. She's located in Brooker, FL and works closely w/ University of Florida Butterfly Museum http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/ staff.
FYI: I have no financial or personal connection to Edith other than as a customer. I've gone to her 2 day seminar on raising butterflies and purchased plants and supplies from her nursery/shop.
http://www.butterflyfunfacts.com/oe.php photo tutorial
http://www.butterflyfunfacts.com/images/disease.oe.chrysalis.6.jpg
http://www.mymonarchguide.com/2008/01/dreaded-tachinid-fly.html
http://www.mymonarchguide.com/ tachinid infestaton
OE is present in wild Monarchs. Farmers and others who raise
Monarchs, Queens, and Soldiers find themselves in a battle with nature.
re:Cleaning milkweed to remove spores Excerpted from http://www.butterflyfunfacts.com/oe.php
"Rearing milkweed in a closed greenhouse or screenhouse will protect your milkweed from wild butterflies who may leave spores on the leaves. When caterpillars eat these spores, they contract the disease. If your milkweed is growing outdoors where wild butterflies are landing upon it, soak the leaves in a 5% bleach/95% water solution for 60 seconds or 100ppm oxine solution for several minutes. Rinse well and allow to drip dry but not dry out. Wet leaves are not healthy for your caterpillars."
I hope this helps,
Maggie
Edits for new site found after uploading
This message was edited Aug 29, 2009 12:05 PM
This message was edited Aug 29, 2009 1:41 PM
A heavily infected Monarch chrysalis will darken along its back first instead of first showing color on its orange wings as is normal.
Well it wasn't the wings, they appeared normal in color, just never straightened. What was black was the body, the only white spots visable were a few on the head. It didn't have the normal white stripes on the lower abdomen. I wish I had taken pictures before tossing them.
I just went to margaran's first link above and saw pictures where they showed the effects of OE and it sure looks like that is what happened.
Thanks for your input.
Maggie,
Thanks so much for all the good web sites. Even with searching I couldn't find the information they contained. I've bookmarked them all. In fact your post would be a good one to add to the sticky about raising bf.
That string that everyone saw was a thread from the floss I had cut. I did dispose of this chrysalis. Of the cats I've raised, only one has turned black and not eclosed so I'm hoping that it was a parasite on the unprotected chrysalis and not OE. These cats came from northern Michigan, only miles from the Canadian border. I think we are not supposed to be as heavily infected with OE as other parts of the country.
I clean my leaves in the bleach solution and stash extra leaves in fridge until needed. They usually last several days in good shape. Thanks again for helping me learn.
Rochelle
Hi BB,
Thanks for the kind words. Definitely right about Michigan, I got so focused on the chrysalis question, I didn't even look @ your state. I didn't know those links weren't up there, guess I should take a look and submit them. So glad I could help.
Maggie
