Pieris Rapae as livefood

[J]

Yesterday I happened across a random paper on an experiment about turnip sawflies and there defence mechanisms against reptiles, honestly this didn't interest me what had caught my eye was the use of pieris rapae caterpillar's as the "control" feeder insect.

we all know the pieris rapae it's known by a few names from small white to small cabbage white butterfly and the imported cabbage worm (for those over in the states) and I was wondering does anyone use these or have any idea of nutritional value according to the experiment these were taken readily by green anoles.

I assume there nutritional value must be fairly low or they are in some way harmful as they do not contain/contain much lower amounts of distasteful oils than other members of the pieris genus so should be taken quite readily and they are easy to breed and have nice soft bodies and eggs/larva/adults can be picked up free from outside as they are considered a pest in many areas.

[Julia]

I was once invaded by cabbage white catterpillars ( neighbours abandoned cabbages). I was tempted to feed them to my axolotl, but didn't as they have 'fur'.

[Jennewt]

The number of insects cultured or collected as "feeders" is quite small. I think this is probably just because people are cautious about experimenting with insects they aren't familiar with - there are probably some toxic ones, and it's "better safe than sorry". So I would venture that there are lots of suitable feeder insects out there that are safe, we just don't know.

If the cabbage caterpillars were being used in a reptile study, this would certainly suggest that they are safe as a feeder.

[J]

Yeah but they're more furry than hairy tho, the hairy dark colored ones are the "large white butterfly" which probably wouldn't be a good feeder as they build up toxins from there food. the green furry ones are the "small white butterfly"

I'm tempted to see if i can get some that have been bred in a laboratory then breed them myself then I will know what they've been fed and less risk of parasite infection and see how they go down with one of my amphibians or reptiles or would people consider this too risky still?

[Joseph S]

Only reason I have not tried is that it would probably be pretty tedious to keep a culture going. In captive conditions you'd have to have lots of plants to feed them and the culture container would have to be cleaned more often than other feeders to prevent disease spread.(think silkworms...anyone who's raised these knows they are no cakewalk)

I would bet, however, that pieris would breed readily in even small enclosures and would certainly not need a "flight cage". The painted lady(an even pricklier species, but likely safe as well) can be bred in something as small as a sweaterbox(have a few photos someone sent me dunno if they are ok to post...but I guess I could email them to anyone truly interested).

So if you are willing to put in some work, I think these are very doable. One note is that since they have a wide variety of host plants I think picking the correct ones will be important. We need something that grows fast easily, but is also nutritious(i.e. not iceberg lettuce LOL) You could simply allow outdoor plants to become infested and harvest as needed.

I think these would be much more useful to people keeping arboreal lizards such as anoles and chameleons...they would likely LOVE the adults!

I doubt you could find a tastier looking caterpillar than this one, btw!
http://www.commanster.eu/commanster/...ris.rapae5.jpg