Favonius quercus

Hostplant: Quercus spp. of which only Quercus rubor and Q.petraea grows naturally in Norway. In my breeding i used Q.petraea.

Lifecycle and behaviour: The female lay her eggs at the base of leafbuds, usually on the underside and preferably on the bigger buds. They are easily found if looking closely in the right places. I gathered some eggs during late winter and kept them in the fridge until spring and the oak leafbuds started to sprout. When removed from the fridge the eggs hatched after 2 days in room temperature. The young larva burrows into the sprouting bud and stays there until there is no food left. Usually they have allready molted once when they come out of the bud. As they grow bigger they eat the whole leaves. The whole larval stage lasted about 3 weeks, and the larva molted 3 times. The pupal stage lasted about 3 weeks aswell. These timings are based on indoor captive breeding and might differ from natural outdoor conditions. The adults are on the wing usually in July in one generation and spends most of their time high up in the canopy. The larva hibernates inside the eggshell and hatches early in the spring the following year.

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