Hasty Cotinis mutabilis update

For those of you not up to date on my Cotinis experiment, here is a brief summary of the research!


- Hypothesis: being given access to branches or foliage-like objects to climb may cause captive Cotinis mutabilis to cease their restless flight attempts, which they constantly perform in captivity when not occupied with other things. I used this fake bouquet:

- Experimental candidates: 3 specimens, two male (above) and one mismolted specimen (seemingly female, below). All appear flightless for some reason.

- Analysis: Sample size way too small, so I have marked many conclusions below as tentative. Due to my rapidly diminishing sanity reserves I cannot afford to capture and feed more wild specimens. Will have to get rid of the three ASAP (trying to mail them live to an acquaintance). What did you expect?


- Notable results: Copulation appears to calm male restless wandering urges for a day or so.

All three specimens remained largely unwilling to fly indoors for some reason and could be allowed to freerange for very extensive periods on a fake plant (though would eventually fall off).

However, they would attempt flight (unsuccessfully) if taken outside and exposed to the sun, even though two of the three had normal-looking hindwings. Note that other Cotinis were able to lift off successfully indoors, so the cooler temps inside are not preventing flight. Fake foliage may have some degree of calming effect on Cotinis, as specimens were seen voluntarily motionless ("involuntary" is when they freeze in alarm upon sensing suspicious vibrations) on it at daytime occasionally.

Note that specimens sometimes become severely frightened by other specimens and may freeze, abandon food, or defecate in alarm; evidently they have difficulty distinguishing between conspecifics and danger.

Nevertheless, specimens often became restless and wandered violently when no longer hungry; evidently the fake foliage could not calm their restlessness fully.

Specimens also accept fake foliage as sleeping areas and will remain overnight on their perches. They prefer it more than damp paper towels, and refuse to sleep if in damp towels. They accept dried towels though; this finding supports earlier findings from previous years and I am fairly confident that Cotinis mutabilis consistently hate damp paper towels as beds. Oddly, these three also hated sleeping underground in damp soil and would dig for hours after sundown but quickly slept once given a perch.

I was too hasty in assuming all C males readily mated w person fingers when calm. These two haven't, despite extensive handling.