Other than simply enjoying the experience, people like myself breed moths for the purposes of releasing them. Silk worms and many other types of moths and butterflies have been steadily declining over the past 20+ years. The causes for decline are a combination of habitat loss, pesticides and predators/parasites. Why would someone want to help declining moths? They are pollinators and are food for other members of the ecosystem like bats and birds.
The first week of June, the club members received caterpillars from the club leaders. The club leaders are so good a breeding moths that there's hundreds off bugs and every member can have 5-15 caterpillars.
June 8-11
The first few days having my caterpillars was stressful! Prior to joining the club, I didn't know that once a caterpillar starts eating a certain leave branch it won't eat any other kind! And the Luna Moth caterpillars I took home were feeding on Walnut. I panicked because I went to the club not knowing what tree species were in my neighborhood. Everyone assured me that identifying trees was so easy and I would be fine. Wrong! I did not find this easy and I am not fine. I am freaking out trying to find the right leaves before my caterpillars starve! They already started to shed/molt so they must be working up an appetite!
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| 6/9/16 My first day with the cats |
I downloading this guide and this guide and it did help after hours. I started to realize that every time I thought there was a walnut tree in my neighborhood, it was the Tree of Heaven. Upon reading these guides, I remembered that I taught my students how to make their own walnut ink by collecting and boiling walnuts we found plentiful in the school yard. Oh how foolish I'd been to not notice the leave structure when I had the chance! So now, I am on a mission to swing by school and snip some unmistakable walnut leaves.
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| 6/10/16 Can you see the left over molt? |
Hah! As irony would have it, once that final paragraph was written, I slammed my macbook shut and went for a jog. I glanced at every tree on my route with despair, taking pictures of the questionable ones. And 1.5 miles into it, what to I run into? A huge black walnut tree! How did I know? Because I had flashbacks of tripping over the dropped walnuts last fall! So I snapped a twig and made for home at a great pace. My suspicions were confirmed when all four caterpillars eagerly accepted the new leaves! Caterpillars know more about trees than I do. They won't even try to eat unless you put the correct leaves. FINALLY. Relief.
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| 6/9/16 Black Walnut leaves |
June 12
Wow! That is definitely the right food. They demolished the branch I put in their cage and there is frass everywhere. Frass, that's bug poop to you.
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| 6/12/16 Is it just me or did they lose weight while I was finding food? |
Holy moly! These cats are getting fat. I wonder when they will molt again.
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| 6/15/16 |
Seriously? They doubled their size since I got them!
June 17
Wrong. They were not ready to molt, they were ready to pupate. They roll themselves into the leaves and spin their silk to keep it bound.
The first Luna Moth has emerged from the pupa! I came home from our "4th of July" party and there he was! I can tell he is a male because his antennae are so gaudy. Females' antennae are more dainty. But just in case, I put the cage out on the deck. If I was wrong and it were a female, her pheromones would have attracted males in the area to mate with her (through the cage).
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| 7/4/16 Found him emerged. |
July 5th
Today we got to witness a moth emerging from the pupa. It was amazing. Although, somewhere along the lines, I missed the detail regarding the moths wings expanding and drying over the course of the day. So for about 90 seconds, I was very depressed that I had reared a deformed animal and felt very sorry for him. But like many moths before him, he hung out on a branch and let his wings stretch to perfection.
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| 7/5/16 Watching him emerge was amazing |
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| 7/5/16 He knew to hang himself up to dry. |
July 7th
All day July 6th and 7th I anxiously waited for the fourth moth to emerge. We already had 3 males and very much hoped for a female! And at 4pm today, I got my wish. A beautiful girl emerged from her pupa.
I was also met with a new challenge. All four moths seems very active all of the sudden. One moth actually damaging his wings trying to fly in the little cage I'm keeping them in. I don't know what all the other moth breeders do, but I ended up moving all four moths into my chameleon's outdoor screen cage for the night.
July 8th
YAY! I checked on the moths this morning and found them mating. At this point they seem to have been mating for a few hours. I don't know how long it takes but as soon as she is unattached, I'll move her into a new cage for her to lay eggs.
Once she lays eggs, I will start a new blog post with more experienced and knowledgable comments.
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