At least, that’s how I imagine birds must view the cecropia moths….”Hey, look at that, Feathers, it’s a HUGE flying dinner! That ought to stuff the kiddies full!”
What?! Can’t I anthropomorphize a bit?
Anyway….
The moths have been emerging steadily with the current count at 3 females and 5 males. They all seem to emerge between 11 a.m. and Noon. By about 6 p.m., their wings are hardened enough to fly off if they choose. Of course, when they first come out of the cocoon, their wings are as fragile as wet tissue paper.
Oh, in case you do decide to have them emerge inside, you will want to put something below the cocoon, as they do empty their gut of all the wastes they have stored up over the winter. Yeah, it’s pretty smelly!
I was surprised that you can’t really tell which cocoon they emerged out of at first glance. Somehow, I pictured more carnage…kind of like Christmas Day with kids ripping open packages.
But, they manage to wriggle out a VERY tiny hole in the end of the cocoon and leave it intact. If you open the empty cocoon up, you can see the shed pupal case (complete with waste in the bottom that was squeezed out as the moth emerged…you are forewarned!).
I still have about 10 left that are sitting in the box. I’m wondering if they just didn’t make it. Here are some photos of the female vs the male antennae:
Female above
Male above
I think there may have been something amiss with the latest female, as she and 2 males emerged on the same day. I expected the males to flock around here, but they ignored her and flew off. When I looked at her more closely, it appears she may have damaged herself emerging from her cocoon.
Here is a picture of her abdomen and then the close-up of what looks like a rip:
A rip? She never flew (although she does pump her wings) and is still sitting alone in the lilac bush tonight, poor thing.
I just love it that these moths look like they are covered in shag carpeting, too!
And look at this beautiful wing pattern:
UPDATE: Turns out the female was O.K. I came back the next day to find her mating, so it looks like everything worked out for her. She did not lay her eggs on the lilac bush, though (whcih is good, because I really need to trim it back this year).
Also, 3 more males & 2 females emerged, leaving only 3 left in the box.
Great photos! Nice close up work.
I am rearing 180 lovely cecropia caterpillars. It is quite a priviledge I must say! I have the intention of releasing them next year. I have one question that maybe you can help me with. Is it ok to allow the ones form the same broad to mate? I believe it is ok, but would like to know for sure as I would love to continue the cycle again for the next year after that. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
You should take a look at wormspit.com as it has some great info about rearing moths. As for the mating question, yes, it’s fine if the same brood mates…insects have a much different biology than mammals and there are less worries about genetic mutations (take a gander at honeybees and aphids for some mind-blowing fertility issues). I found 2 mating pairs outside on my lilac bush and I am almost certain they are from the same brood (since it’s so rare to find ones around here).
Ideally, it would be great if you could get moths from different broods to mate (more robust DNA pool) but that’s not always easy to do. Maybe you can find someone nearby who is also raising the same species? If the one brood keeps mating year after year after year, you will probably find that some less healthy mutations start appearing eventually.
The closest explaination I could find was this: “28 Pedigree Moth-breeding. is full of variations, and although the “median” of each characteristic in each brood is on the average always more mediocre than the corresponding characteristic in the mean of the two parents. The first of these events, “fraternal variability,” increases the variability of the population as a whole, and the latter event, which I call “Regression,” decreases it ; the two can be shown to counter balance each other, and give rise to a position of stable equilibrium.”
Check out this website, too: http://butterflywebsite.com/articles/lizday/moth.html
Good info there. Good luck! Although a lot of work, I did enjoy the end results (although I will NOT be doing this again!)
Thank you! I strive to emulate the great photos of a certain naturalist duo I know….:-)
[...] Cecropia moths emerge! [...]
What fantastic photos! Holy cow!
Thank you and may I say what fantastic paintings you have!