Fantastic!

Take the picture, I'd love to see it.

When they part just place her in the paper bag. Cut up the bag after she lays and keep however many eggs you want to raise. I've released females onto a host tree after the first round of egg laying quite a few times. She can lay hundreds. The eggs won't hatch for about 10 days and the first instar starts off eating ve-ry slowly (as you already know). Were they in a heated area? Otherwise I would assume they know what they are doing. I would not put them in the fridge. If you have more eggs than you want you can staple the remaining eggs/paper to your sweetgum tree.

Okay, I won't put them in the fridge, I'll just set up the big cage on the front porch and put the eggs I keep in there. I've zippered up the cage they're in now, and I'll watch them like a hawk so that when they part I can let the male go quickly - hmmm....I think it'd be better to unzip the cage once it starts to get dusky outside, even if they're still coupled.
I'll tour the property and see how much, if any, new growth the sweetgums have on them - I know I saw a few the other day that were beginning to leaf out. There are several other types of deciduous trees/bushes that have a good bit of new growth on them, like serviceberry, wild blueberries, etc., but I don't know if they'd want to eat those. I'll probably be able to find enough sweetgums with enough new growth on them to feed the hatchlings by the time they hatch, I don't know, I'll have to see.
Thanks so much for answering my post, kwoods! I need technical and moral support! :)
Sherry

Sherry
We want pictures!! I wish you could do a video from start to finish of everything your asking and doing with the Luna's it is captivating!

Carol

I made a picture of them - they didn't even budge when I unzipped the cage! I didn't want to spend too much time trying to get just the right picture and cause them to disengage, so the picture I got was a bit blurry - I may have sharpened it too much when I edited it. The male is on the right - he's the one that's dark yellowish green. The female is on the left - she's the one I raised, and she's mint green. I noticed that the male does indeed have bigger antennae. When will I ever get it in my head just how very big the antennae of the males are! :)
{{gwi:455164}}
Kwoods, I don't think you saw my picture of the cocoon with the pipevine swallowtail chrysalis stuck onto it - I found these two underneath some Japanese climbing fern on the fence around my garden. Could this be a luna cocoon? Looks like it to me!
{{gwi:453150}}
Sherry

Great job Sherry!

the picture is just fine, looks like hanging green leaves to me but thats okay I am learning!!

Carol

Wow!

Beautiful! You're way ahead of me. It will be interesting to see which of the parents the offspring more closely resemble.

If you leave the cage unzipped and they separate the female will probably fly off as well. You could let her lay in the cage if you wanted, I've done that (accidentally). You just have to meticulously remove the eggs later if you plan on rearing them elsewhere.

"Could this be a luna cocoon?" Hard to tell. The ones I've found have always been in the leaves of host trees or in the leaf litter beneath them. Doesn't look like cecropia or promethea though. Whatever it is I hope for you and the moths that it's female. Only one way to find out for sure!

I'm really thrilled that there was a male out there to mate with her! He's the first natural big silk moth I've seen since the hurricane. He may be descended from some yellowy ones I released several years ago, before the hurricane. A professor in California had raised some lunas (on sweetgum) and was looking for some people in the east to take the cocoons. I took some, and they all turned out to be yellow green males, all flew out of their cage. The MS regulars looked more mint green like this female.
Would you believe a regal moth and a male io moth emerged this morning? I don't know if the regal is a male or a female either - it's way up at the top of the cage, and I can't see it's antennae or belly. I guess I'll take the cages to the porch this evening, unzip them, and see what happens!
Sherry

Great picture, Sherry! I really hope that I'll get to raise some Lunas someday but since they are so scarce, it would be something just to find any at all. Good luck with yours.

I just put her in a brown paper bag - about how long does it usually take for them to lay eggs?
Thanks!
Sherry

Well, I couldn't wait, so I opened the bag, let her back out in the cage, and there are clusters of eggs all over the inside of the bag - YAY!!
Sherry

Lots of mouths to feed. Good for you!

Seems like you are in a position to keep them going indefinitely now should you choose to.

Misssherry, how exciting. I've been raising cecropias for a couple of years now but never any Lunas. The only Luna I've ever caught was one male a few years ago that was dive bombing around a light and I rescued him from the middle of the road. Maybe I could be so lucky as to capture an egg-bearing female some day.

When my female Cecropias layed on the paper bag, I would cut out a small section of the bag with the eggs and staple it to a leaf on the branch of a host plant where I wanted them to be.(Usually in an aquarium) Then they would move by themselves onto the leaves.-Easier than trying to transfer them)

Keep us up to date, the Lunas are so beautiful.

Maryann

Yes, I'm looking forward to feeding all those mouths of moths, Ken. I just hope the little bit of new growth I've got on sweetgum doesn't get killed back tonight by a light freeze - it's supposed to go down to 33F degrees. I'm not going to release them tonight - it's supposed to be warmer tomorrow, in the upper 60's, then warmer tomorrow night, so tomorrow night's the night I'll let them go. I guess I'll put the regal moth that's emerged out tomorrow, too - if it's a female, maybe a male will find her like the male luna found my female. I hope the male io can find a honey out there somewhere, too!
Maryann, I just LOVE lunas, but I've got a few cecropia cocoons, also. I'd just LOVE to raise some of them, too! They like cherry don't they? My wild black cherry trees are just starting to leaf out - now that I think about it, the crabapples are further along, and anything that eats cherry will usually eat crabapple.
I'll keep y'all posted!
Sherry

Ambbutterfly and Carol - I bet y'all will be raising some big moths soon, too!
Sherry

WOW Miss Sherry!!! I hadn't frequented this site in a while. Saw your thread about the Luna Moths. Way cool!!!

Your gonna have eggs coming out of your ears :o) I raised Forbes' Silkmoths when the female laid about 300 eggs in captivity. I then released her and let her lay more eggs around the neighborhood :o)

Do keep us posted on the progress...and if you can post photos on Dave's bug files of the eggs and caterpillar instar stages :o)

Woohoo!!! Congrats!!!

~ Cat

ps...I made the mistake of leaving the female in the reptarium before I put her into a paper bag...she started to lay eggs on the mesh - I left them there but then when the caterpillars hatched they climbed through the mesh looking for food. I had to use a paint brush to put them onto their host plant :o)

~ Cat

What are Forbes silkmoths, Cat? Something native to south Texas and/or Mexico?
I put three cages on the front porch this morning that contain the following - two giant swallowtails that emerged yesterday, one of which I've released already, two male io moths (another one emerged this morning) the two luna moths and one regal moth - I think the regal moth is a female, so I hope she'll "call" and a male will "hear" her!
Cat, my female luna laid at least three eggs into the little holes in the mesh of the reptarium cage she's in. I'm glad it was just three, so I won't have to deal with removing any more than that - maybe I'll just leave them where they are, and let that cage be the one I keep the hatchlings in.
I'll keep you posted.
Sherry

I've been setting up the big cage with a smaller, vented plastic container inside that one - I put the eggs into the small container. I carefully removed ten eggs from the side of the original cage she was in and put them in a jar lid, lined with a section of paper towel. I cut the paper bag into sections with clusters of eggs on them and added these sections to the plastic container for a total of 116 eggs!! I hope they take a while to hatch, so I'll have more leaves outside to feed them!
Here's a picture of the ten eggs -
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I'm going to keep these in the plastic container in the big cage on the porch unless we have a cold spell where the temps go below about 45F degrees. If that happens, all I'll have to do is move the plastic container inside to my unheated guest room.
Sherry

Sherry,

Great photo of the eggs!!!

The Forbes' Silkmoth is native to a couple of counties in south Texas. They call it "Quatro Espejos" in Mexico as the wings have four mirror-like markings. It is a richly colored moth of beige, brown and maroon.

Must say nothing quite compares to the beauty of a Luna moth though. Sure wish we got those here :o)

The eggs were laid in the fall season and hatched in 7 to 10 days. I had gobs of tiny caterpillars everywhere!!! :o)

This is a photo of the mating pair of Forbes Silkmoths. They stayed together for about 18 hours. I released the male after he did his job and kept the female for three days to harvest eggs then released her so she could continue to lay eggs in the neighborhood.

~ Cat

Here is a link that might be useful: Forbesi Lebeau's rothschildia moth

The Forbes silkmoths are beautiful, Cat! They look similar to several of ours, like prometheas and others.
All my moths flew the coop last night - another male io emerged today, so I released him tonight. I assume my female luna will lay the rest of her eggs on trees and/or plants of her choosing.
I don't know what percentage of these eggs will hatch out cats, but even if only half of them do, I don't know how I can handle raising so many. I'll probably wind up putting a lot of them on trees to raise themselves.
I'm so happy that I'm helping out the local luna moth population - I've missed them so much since the hurricane!
Sherry

If you do try to breed these ones once they eclose, make sure to be careful, so as not to get inbreeding. That might mean you would have to keep any males inside until you get some females to call some other males in the area. Whatever you end up doing, it's something to think about.
-Jmcat

Jmcat, I too was concerned about the inbreeding thing while raising my Cecropias.

I started with two tiny caterpillars found on the same leaf of a puple plum. They happened to be, by chance, one male and one female. The next year, they mated, and the third year they all interbred.

So I now have a fourth generation, with no new genetic material... I was told not to worry too much about this..that it's better to raise them inbred than not at all..hmm..

This year I'll really try to introduce some new DNA into the mix....I'm hoping to attract some wild cecropias to my calling females this year...LOL...such a strange and fascinating problem. Only you guys would understand.

Misssherry, I sympathize with you raising so many young. If you need inspiration to keep them in a shelter, I released at least 50 Cats onto my Kwazann cherry tree and only found two cocoons this winter on the tree.

So the others either wandered off, or were eaten by birds. I did often see cardinals in the tree, and we all know how much they like big, fat, juicy tomato worms....

Maryann

A lot of your cecropias probably were eaten by birds or any of the other many predators out there, Maryann.
The lunas that result from these eggs will have a diverse genetic background. You can see from the picture that the two of them come from the opposite ends of the luna color spectrum. The female came from the batch from Long Island, NY, that I raised, and the male was a wild MS dude, although he may have descended from one of the yellowy males I released several years ago, which came from a professor in California - I don't know where his eggs came from. If something happens that I rear the cats from these eggs and find that the some of the adult lunas have emerged at the same time from the resulting cocoons and are mating with each other, then those two will go back into the wild without me taking any eggs to raise from them. I won't take any more eggs from any of my female lunas unless I'm sure that the male has come from the wild. I want to keep the genetic diversity going!
Sherry

We're supposed to have continuing warm weather for at least a week, so the trees should speed up their leaf making, just in time! :)
Sherry

The fence cocoon IS a luna moth!
{{gwi:455168}}
I think this one is a female since her body is so thick, so I put my luna cocoons in a cage on the front porch where it's light and warm, where hopefully at least one male will emerge to mate with her. I may be wrong, of course - my track record on sexing lunas is very poor! Her antennae are pretty big - maybe "she's" a he! :)
I'm continuing to work in my garden, and while I was pulling up some weeds, I found this pupa -
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This pupa is about an inch long, long enough to be a decent sized moth. I put it in the cage on the porch so I can see what kind of moth emerges.
Sherry

If you're out there, Kwoods, I believe this second luna from the eggs you sent me is a female, too! Compare her little bitty antennae with the big, feathery ones on the luna on the fence -
{{gwi:455170}}
I hope y'all aren't getting sick of my lunacy! :)
I'm just excited to have so many of these beautiful moths!
Sherry

MissSherry, I just love your pictures and you just keep sharing your lunacy with us because that way we'll feel halfway normal. ;-) I can't get over how beautiful the lunas are. I just keep staring at your pictures. A moth that big and beautiful is mesmerizing! I wish you continued success with them and all of your other tenants.

"Lunacy" - I like it.
-Jmcat

"If you're out there, Kwoods"

I am happily following all of your success. Nothing has eclosed yet for me. I'm especially looking forward to incessantly feeding greedy Cecropias once again. Still too cold.

Be sure to let us know when your eggs hatch.

They haven't hatched yet, and they were laid on the 8th - hope I don't have 116 duds! :(
Sherry

They've hatched! It looks like there's jillions of 'em!
I put quite a few little sprigs of sweetgum, brand new growth, and a few are on it - I'm so excited!
Sherry

If you are that excited, hm...guess you'd better start yet another thread! :)

I probably will start another thread - had enough luna threads? - once I get settled in with this batch. I've been running around like a chicken with my head off trying to figure out the best way to feed them, making cuttings of sweetgum, first laying the cuttings down for them to feed on, then putting them in water picks and propping them up where the hatchlings can get on them. The pieces of sweetgum that I laid down without water don't look good, they're wilting a bit. Would you believe we're scheduled to have a freeze tonight? It's supposed to get down to exactly 32F degrees in my area! :( I've brought in everything I had on the front porch, chrysalids, cocoons and all, and put them in my guest room. I opened the vent and the door to warm it up since it was previously my UNheated guest room, now that I've got these hatchlings plus one early instar red-spotted purple caterpillar. I don't know what I'm going to do if it gets cold enough to zap all the new growth on the trees outside!
Where's global warming when you need it?
Sherry

Kwoods..Do you have many wild Cecropia and Luna Moths there?

I'm just across the Sound from you and I rarely see any here.

I used to see the Lunas around the lights at a Softball field near a lot of woods, but that was many years ago.

Maybe I'll have to start going to games again! (I wonder if they'd mind me running out on the field with a net...)

Sherry, I'm glad your eggs hatched..I know it can be a little intimidating when you see all those hungry mouths to feed! It gets to the point where it takes whole branches at a time to provide enough leaves..And the frass...Well, that's another story!

Maryann in CT

I'm glad they hatched! Sounds like you are going to be very, very busy. I often use sleeves I make from reemay row covers. You just cut them, double it over and put a stitch down two sides to make a simple tube. If you make a large enough sleeve and slip it over a big enough branch it can hold a number of cats right up until they pupate. 100 cats is an awful lot!

"Do you have many wild Cecropia and Luna Moths there?"

I think we have a relatively healthy and stable population. I see them under the lights at my son's lacrosse games and find gravid females under the lights in a nearby parking garage. Sometimes I let my raised females call in a closed cage and try to get a count on how many wild males are out there. Wild males always appear, sometimes more, sometimes less. Prometheas we have an abundance of. There have been times where I have counted 30 or more males coming to visit a single female.

Oh! MissSherry.... pictures of the tiny ones?