Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Woohoo!!! A Rothschildia lebeau forbesi - Forbes' Silkmoth, 0 by TexasPuddyPrint

TexasPuddyPrint wrote:
Moth # 1

Egg laid 10/13/07
Caterpillar hatched 10/19/07
Caterpillar pupated 12/26/07
Moth eclosed 01/31/08

The caterpillar that pupated on 12/26/08 eclosed today while I was at work!!!

A lovely Forbes Silkmoth has emerged :o) I don't know if this is male or female. Have sent email to a moth-man in San Antonio.

Our temperature is 55 outside right now and anticipated to go down to 41 but warm up tomorrow. Since these have no mouth parts I am going to keep it inside until I find out if it's male or female. If it's female will breed her and collect some more eggs to continue the cycle...then will release her after a couple of egg laying days...if male will release him as soon as possible.

Woohoo!!! It feels so good to have monitored the complete life cycle of this gorgeous moth. Am still bummed out that of all the eggs laid in captivity only two caterpillars made it to adulthood. Am hoping I'll have better luck next time around.

This message was edited Feb 4, 2008 10:26 AM