Imperial Moth Eggs Hatching

A friend mailed me some Imperial Moth eggs last week, Eacles imperialis. They were quick to turn from a light green to transparent. 

Within a few days of arriving they've started hatching. After a few quick nibbles they hold still a while, waiting for their spines to inflate (emerge?) and harden. These hard spikes will be their only protection early on.

I was also sent some Polyphemus Moth eggs so hopefully I'll be able to update on those too.

Best of Butterflies 2010

The caterpillar to the Copper Underwing Moth, Amphipyra pyramidea. The moth is plane looking and brown; it's fairly bland looking too except for the rear wings with are an orange copper color. These are normally hidden from view though. The caterpillar though, later instars develop this neat blue green color. This one nibbled the leaves to our Native Plum tree and vanished. 

Defoliating trees is a busy job. Here our native Eastern Tent Moth, Malacosoma americanum wonders from the forest to make a cocoon. Besides forming a massive web-like tent in trees this species isn't that damaging.

Eastern Comma, Polygonia comma, sipping up minerals along a sandy trail. Salt I think is the most uncommon mineral considering their food source (nectar and rotten fruit), so licking it up is the only option.

(Corrected ID) American Lady, Vanessa virginiensis. 

Hawk Moth.

Azures Butterfly. This little jewel doesn't do itself justice when sitting nicely. Upon flying and flapping it's wings the shimmering baby blue color really shines.

A White Azures Butterfly. Related to the above. 

Red Spotted Purple.

Red Spotted Purple feeding on rotten fruit.

Eastern Comma, Polygonia comma, wings open.

Eastern Comma, Polygonia comma, with the wings closed.

Red Spotted Purple, Limenitis arthemis. This is one of those black swallowtails that are easy to get confused with other species like the Pipevine, Spice Bush, and Black Swallowtails. To confound the matter worse this species has a white stripped called the White Admiral. The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail female can also have a black form.

Cloudless Sulphur, (I think) Phoebis sennae. Or maybe the Clouded Sulphur, Colias philodice. Anyhow a Sulphur butterfly on a purple coneflower.

Regal Moth, Citheronia regalis. The caterpillar also has a common name as the Hickory Horned Devil for it's enormous size (up to 7 inches!) and long bright red claw-like horns protruding just behind the head.

Also note the incredibly small Acorn Ant just below the wing on the branch.

I've no idea what this is but it's another caterpillar on my native plum tree.

Tiger Swallowtail, Papilio glaucus.

Cabbage butterfly, Pieris rapae. I've herd this common butterfly called an invasive import. While I'm not certain on the invasive part, I am certain on the imported part. It's hard to call something invasive when it's host plant (Brassica sp.) isn't native to this continuant.

This is the Silver Spotted Sipper, Epargyreus clarus. I'm highlighting this one because I find skippers to be boring. The dominant species(s) here are all plane brown little things. While I don't find them annoying I think the absence of bright colors makes them bland. The Silver Spotted one though is much larger and actually has color. I'd admit though I've seen orange and yellowish skippers, but they're not common here. The Silver Spot at least makes this species easy to recognize.

The Squash Borer Moth, Melittia cucurbitae. This is a wasp mimicking moth that flies during the day time. The host plant is anything in the squash family, namely pumpkin, cucumber, zucchini, musk melon (cantaloupe in America) gourds and so on.  

Monarch Butterfly, Danaus plexippus.

Polyphemus Moth, Antheraea polyphemus. I found this female just moments after she'd finished mating behind work. What I believe was the male was scurrying up a building, flapping his wings to help clime to his exit. I collected the female by simply her in my car thinking, as I'd read in books, I could later put her in a paper bag and she'd lay some eggs. Well what books don't tell you is the laying of eggs has nothing to do with the paper bag, it's a response to being in darkness. She started laying eggs the moment she found the space between the driver's seat and the car door.

Beautiful shell like Polyphemus eggs.

Monarch Caterpillar nibbling on some Milkweed.

Polyphemus caterpillars. I tried rearing them in captivity. Sadly that didn't work out. It seems young caterpillars like to wonder and quickly escaped the enlarged enclosure I put them in. If I get another chance to rear them I'll have to separate them into smaller groups first and work up that way.

Monarch Crystals

Some type of caterpillar crawling out of a sunflower.

Some type of caterpillar (same as above?) nibbling on a Mexican Sunflower head. What's neat is Mexican Sunflowers aren't native to most of the U.S. And yet they are the host plant to something.

Now I think this is a Clouded Sulphur, Colias philodice.

Common Buckeye, Junonia coenia. This is amazingly pretty with all the fake eyes. Normally the eyes on the wings are to scare off birds... but this one seems to be mimicking a monster only found in the nightmares of birds the world over.

Parasitized caterpillar. The inhabitants of these cocoons chewed their way out of the caterpillar's body.

Bicolored Sallow, Sunira bicolorago. I think.

Cocoon to a Polyphemus Moth. This egg shaped cocoon is as hard as a rock and really hard to see among the leaf litter to their host plants.

Polyphemus Moth Cocoon

Earlier this summer I stumbled upon a mating pair of Polyphemus moths. I took the female home, she laid some eggs and I let her go. I then attempted rearing the caterpillars in captivity but this was my first time doing this. Sadly I failed, they all died shortly after. Normally this would be the end of the story but it's not. You see, I was feeding the caterpillars leaves to the oak and maple trees we have in our yard... what I didn't expect was the Polyphemus moth laying eggs on them before departing.

Hidden in the fallen leaves at the base of our willow oak is the cocoon to a Polyphemus moth.

It's empty of course. It's far to late in the year to find adults.

I showed this picture to someone who's opinion I trust is correct. She raises several species of giant silk moth in captivity. She said the texture, shape, size, and even it's location (the leaf litter around oak and maple trees) are exactly what she'd expect a Polyphemus moth to produce. It's also rock solid. I can't believe how hard this thing is.

So while I may have missed this one emerging, hopefully next year's generations will find my trees to be appetizing and I'll get another chance in the spring.

They're Growing

They sure have taken to eating now. A few however have died though. I attribute this to finding a preference for one host plant over the other.

They've started changing color too.

As a side note last night I had a dream where flesh eating caterpillars were nibbling away the skin between my fingers and were disguised as the very scab tissue the horn on their head created upon poking the flesh. Talk about scientific horror.

Polyphemus Caterpillars Hatched

I came home from the wedding last night to find my plastic box of Polyphemus eggs have started hatching. Unlike Monarchs that take 3 days to hatch Polyphemus caterpillars seem to take 10 to 15 days.

I was worried at first because they weren't eating at all. I wend down the list of host plants I have out in my yard and they didn't eat any of the leaves. I'm happy to see today though they have started nibbling. What I believe is Swamp Oak was the winner. Other plants I tried were Willow Oak, Sugar Maple, Button Bush, Crab Apple, Gala Apple, and a native Dogwood. The Willow Oak and Dogwood are getting nibbled too.

They're in the plastic box because they're tiny, and early on they like to wonder. As you saw in the top picture they're covered in hairs and spines that help make them inedible. Despite this though birds still eat them. So it's better if they're spread out on a tree instead of all on the same branch.

They're taking to crowding okay for now. I plan to move them all to a larger terrarium after a few instars, problems pending. I'll have to do this anyhow assuming all 80 of them hatch and grow.

I notice a few have horns but I'm not certain of their purpose yet.

Polyphemus Moth Eggs

Well I've since let the Polyphemus moth go.

Though now moth-less I'm left with some 80 eggs or so to potentially make more with. I love how they look like little seashells.

Found a Polyphemus Moth

Last night while leaving work I discovered a Polyphemus Moth. Actually I discovered two but the other one was scurrying away up the wall. It was the kind of situation I feel where had I been a half hour earlier I probably would have discovered the two mating.

Acting on impulse, I once again put a giant silk moth in the car as I drove home to take pictures. The last time I did this it was with a Luna Moth and the damn thing flew up on my nose while driving! Had I been in an accident I'd have smashed the thing to my face against the air bag leaving paramedics to wonder why I was wearing a cabaret mask.

Thankfully the Polyphemus moth was more cooperative. And what's more, upon getting home I reached down between the driver's side door and driver seat. Apparently Big Moth-e wants Out-e. I discovered she had started laying eggs!

I have read that if you put them in a "paper bag" over night they'll deposit some eggs. Well apparently it's not so much the texture of the bag as the moth naturally reacting to complete darkness! So I put her in a box for the night and sure enough she laid eggs.

I'll be letting her go later tonight just as it gets dark. My yard is after all full of host plants for her though I do wish I had some Birch trees. Apple, Maple, Ash, and according to Doug Tallamy, Button Bush are all used as host plants. Now that I have a few dozen eggs to toy around with I'm thinking I'll try and rear some caterpillars if they hatch. I do have the leaves for this after all. I'm just not sure what to do about winter. hmmm.