New Rearing Problem!

[monarchlady]

Been rearing since 1998-this is a first for me. What caused it? On Sept 1, I found a 4th instar cat in the wild. Brought it home to give it a better chance to survive. Placed happy cat in individual container, same as all my cats--he ate and did all the right things. J-hooked for a day and then trouble--it split skin at bottom (about 1/2") and was stuck--skin did not split. The cat worked vigorously to open the skin. It did not make it. I thought it was because I "messed" with nature. Then, a few days later, one of my own did the same thing. (Egg laid by my release on my milkweed and brought in the same day. I had found 14 eggs that day, all have formed chrysalis and seem totally normal. They should will all be emerging in the next two days.) Can anyone tell me what happened and why? Thanks.

[2BFree]

On occasion this has happened for me. This year I tried something I haven't done before. One of the cats was about a 1/3 done shedding going into chrysalis and it seemed to come to a stand still no matter how hard it wiggled. I lightly misted it with lukewarm water 2 times - left and came back later and it was in chrysalis. I have no idea if it helped but I'm pretty sure it didn't hurt.

Also for the first time this summer I had a couple of cats in earlier instars that did not completely molt. One had a narrow band left around it's midsection, (but all the rest of the skin had come off) and one had shed about half way. I misted these cats and used a camel hair paint brush to gently roll the molt the rest of the way off. Both cats did fine and managed the next molt just fine. I then moved them back with the others so I don't know how they finished out.

[Megathymus ursus]

Most of the time, this is totally random and has no real traceable cause. I personally SUSPECT that many pupation failures are due to sick larvae that were not strong enough to work the skin off.

If this is a consistent pattern, then you definitely are dealing with a disease.