I've been raising luna moths for a long time, although I recently released my last one, a female, and she didn't leave any eggs on the cage, so I'll probably not be raising more for a while. That is, unless I find a luna caterpillar on one of the jillions of sweetgum trees here, raise it to maturity, it turns out to be a female, and she leaves me eggs.

They're about the easiest of the big moths to raise. Just keep feeding them clean (no bugs, like spiders, etc.) sweet gum leaves, and they'll do great. I usually cut a short branch of new growth down to just below last year's growth, put them in a container with water that has holes punched in the top, and put these in a cage.

When they purge (they don't purge big) and start to show pink coloring, they're about to make their cocoon. I watch them, and if they try to make a cocoon in the paper towels on the bottom of the cage, I gently pull them off, cut off a big sweetgum leaf, put the caterpillar in the center of it, fold over the leaf sections and secure it with the long stem. Then I have a nice, clean cocoon.

Good luck!

Sherry

There is a lot of luna moth info here if you search for it. I suggest you start with the thread I'm linking here. Within that thread, there are two links to other luna threads. All three threads were started by the Luna Queen, MissSherry. :)

Luna Moth

Some of the rest of the luna eggs are hatching today. The difference in size between a newly hatched caterpillar and a one-day old cat is amazing - the day old cat is nearly twice as big!

Sherry

Hi, thank you for the great advice! Can anyone tell if these babies are about to cocoon yet? There are only 5 that made it so far. One died that was smaller so Im a little worried about the one thats left that is also small. I just changed out their leaves and moved them on the old stems to the new leaves when i took this pic.

I can't tell from your picture how big they are, since sweetgum leaves vary so much in size. Luna cats don't get too long, ?about 3 1/2"?, but they get real thick/fat before they cocoon. When you pick up a leaf with a full grown luna caterpillar on it, the leaf will actually feel heavy, at least by caterpillar standards.

I always have at least one cat that's much smaller than the others, this time, there are about ?3, I haven't counted. They keep on growing after the big ones have made their cocoons and eventually make their own.

Just watch for a purge - the purge will be much less and lighter colored than the purges of swallowtails, but you'll see it. About the same time, the cat will start wandering, and you'll notice that it's changed color - instead of being bright green, it'll be sort of pale green and have a pinkish tinge to the green.

Sherry

Ok thanks I will watch. So far they are sticking to the leaves and not wandering lol.

Do I need to put them in a different type of container? Right now i have them in one of those tupperwares w a lid. It is about 12 long by 6 in wide but its pretty flat. Like the ones u store cookies in (?) Lol. I am wondering if they need more ventilation now that they are larger? Also do they need to hang down when they cocoon?

You've had them in a sealed container all this time? I raise mine in cages that have mesh coverings, so they're very well ventilated. If I were you, I'd put some bridal veil type material over the top of your container and secure it with a rubber band. The fact that yours are all alive shows that they don't need as much air as I thought.

They don't need to hang upside down like many butterflies, and it's fine to leave them with the other caterpillars. They'll voluntarily either make their cocoon with leaves or make a 'naked' cocoon on the side or top of the container. I prefer to do like I said in my first post, fold the segments of a big sweetgum leaf over them when I know they're ready to cocoon, and secure it by carefully poking the long stem through the opposite leaf fold, taking care not to poke the caterpillar. It makes a neat cocoon.

Keep me posted.

Sherry

My experience is you should ditch the sealed containers when they get to 4th instar unless you have only one caterpillar. Keeping multiple large luna cats in a sealed container is a good way to end up with sick cats and they usually don't recover.

I was following the advice on this link lol, cuz I had no clue what to do. I bought the eggs on ebay and they had no instructions! I wonder if thats why that little one died.

So put netting-like material over it? I have them in the house by a shady window (deep porch outside the windows). It is 75 F inside the house as we have air conditioning. I dont know what the humidity is inside.

http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/Actiaslunarearing.htm

The trick is to follow what Bill says about changing food. Leaves have to be dry. You have to make sure you wipe any condensation from the container. When the humidity gets too high in a sealed container with big caterpillars, bad things happen. Follow his instructions and you should be fine.

I have been wiping off any condensation. I have 2 tubs and completely change out the tubs every day now cuz they poop so much. I am going to find another container maybe one of the taller clear storage tubs from walmart or somewhere. We did have a 10 gal aquarium but when i went to get it out of storage, i found it got broken somehow! :/

Here is the size of some big ones vs the smallest one.

One of mine made a cocoon 2 days ago. Spun silk and wrapped himself in a leaf. Then one of the others ate a few bites of his leaf! Ok should I take the cocooned one out or leave it in now?

I'd move it away from the one biting his leaf, although, once it bites into the silk, it'll leave it alone.

Sherry

Thank you. As of yesterday, 2 more made cocoons :) DH is making a little screen cage for them thats 2ftx3ft.

Is it ok to place the cocoons in this type of enclosure for them to emerge in? I could either leave it in the house or put in out on our screened in porch thats on the shady side of the house. It has been hot in the upper 90' s and even 100F this past week so not sure if that would be too much of a temp change for them?

Also I have another question thats probably dumb lol. I have read that if you get a female, you should let it mate w a wild male. Whats wrong w the captive males? Are they not fertile? Just wondering..

Best place would be to keep the cocoons in the screen cage somewhere shady and your porch sounds ideal. I'm in MD, but our summer broods usually hatch in several weeks so I bet yours are similar.

You generally don't want siblings pairing for the same reason you wouldn't want to have children with your brother or sister(!) - over time the genes will weaken and the stock will die out. Some saturniids such as regalis absolutely refuse to mate with siblings. Lunas will mate with siblings for a generation or two, but as said it's a bad idea if you want to successfully rear the subsequent caterpillars. Best to draw in a wild male which sounds like it should be pretty easy where you live.

Oh, that makes sense lol! No incest for the Lunas then :D If I put them on the screen porch at night and open the porch screen door and the Luna house door, will the wild males be able to find their way into the porch or will I need to pluck them off the screen and move them into the Luna cage? Trying to formulate a plan.

~SJN

You might get lucky by leaving the porch door open and a male might accidentally find his way in...at the same time leaving the luna moth cage door open and getting lucky enough that the female doesn't escape at the same time. I wouldn't chance it if you're interested in getting a pairing.

A better solution would be just to leave the female loose in the porch (assuming there's no way to escape) and then wake up around 1am and capturing any males that might have been attracted and toss them into the porch. If the female's cage itself is too small then pairing can be difficult (anything less than 3ft square would probably be cutting it close for a luna). A screen porch would be more than enough size.

An even better and somewhat more advanced solution is to literally tie the female into a screen cylinder that's about 10" diameter x 24" in length. This of course assumes you are up for gently tying a string around the female to "lasso" her into the cylinder so she doesn't escape. It takes a little finesse. Then you just leave the cylinder outside overnight (tucked away in a small bush or tree) and check on it first thing in the morning (before the birds all wake up). I use this method exclusively for all NA species and it works very well.

One annoying thing about lunas is that sometimes they pair rather quickly - just a couple hours. So unless you've seen them coupled overnight you might not necessarily be sure they mated. Unlike cecropia or regalis who remain paired the entire next day. That's why it's a good idea to wake up at 2-3am regardless to check on them so see if there's any action.

Mine are in cages on my shaded front porch here in hot, humid Mississippi. I unzip the door after dark, and a male will usually show up around 12:00 p.m. Sometimes a female won't get any takers the first night, but they usually stay and get a mate the second night.

I've never had a mating between siblings when both males and females emerged the same day. The males leave after dark, and most of the females will stay in the cage - occasionally a female will leave, usually when there are several other females in the cage with her. I say I've never had a mating between siblings, but, I suppose a male could leave and then come back at 12:00 or the next night, I don't know. But, since there appear to continue to be plenty of healthy lunas here, I doubt that's happening.

I've got about ?10 cocoons from this batch, with four more caterpillars still eating.

By the way, all my lunas stay paired all day, don't disengage until dark falls, usually.

'Love those luna moths!

Sherry

Oh wow that is great advice you guys! I am probably gonna need help figuring out girls from boys assuming they all emerge okay lol. Dh almost has the screen cage done. It looks good so far. He has the sides done and the door. He just needs to add a top and bottom. He doesn't get that much time to work on it but does what he can. I have my last caterpillar still eating. All the rest have cocoons. Two of them made cocoons together and are kinda sharing a few leaves all wrapped up together in a nest lol. Crossing my fingers that they will all live. I guess the first time is kinda nerve wracking for everybody :)

I have a bunch of night blooming jasmine (Cestrum nocturnum) blooming outside now and they are being visited by sphinx moths. They are fun to watch.

i have just raised a bunch of luna cats for the first time and yea they love sweetgum leaves, it’s what i fed mine, keep their aquarium lined with clean paper towels and always keep fresh leaves, i took small branches of the tree and placed then bottom in a container coveeed and filled with water after i punched holes to put the branches thru, that way the leaves stay freah so u don’t have to change as often and i just let them eat eat eat until they pupated and last night my first two emerged from their cocoons and will be set free. good luck, it’s very eas and i’m sure you will do great

first pic is a female then male ,u can see the color difference

There is a lot of luna moth info here if you search for it. I suggest you start with the thread I'm linking here. Within that thread, there are two links for futuristic clothing to other luna threads. All three threads here were started by the Luna Queen, MissSherry. :)