Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Woohoo!!! A Rothschildia lebeau forbesi - Forbes' Silkmoth, 1 by TexasPuddyPrint

TexasPuddyPrint wrote:
Rj,

Yes, they use Prickly Lime Ash (zanthoxylum fagara), Mexican Ash (fraxinus berlandieriana), Willow (salix), Peach (prunus persica), Citrus, Acacia and Privet (lingustrum).

I released the male as he would still be on a quest to fertilize as many females as he could find :o)

The female will live only about five to seven days and never feed. Her sole purpose (aside from looking quite lovely) is to mate and lay eggs. When a female ecloses she will perch quietly for the first night...then on the second she 'calls' to a male. I watched her vibrate her wings on night two. Guess that sends the pheromones out in the night. Once a male finds her they will remain mated for usually 24 hours or less. She then starts to lay eggs and continues to lay eggs for the next three to five days. Then she passes quietly - most likely due to the being exhausted and completely spent by her egg laying mission.

Considering their short life span...and that as far as US goes they are only found in the Rio Grande Valley (Hidalgo and Cameron counties)...I feel quite honored to have met her and him :o)

Here are three eggs that I found on an ash leaf. I'd moved a potted sapling into the reptarium and never even noticed the eggs. When I was taking photos of the r. forbesi mating I was going to remove a leaf so I could get better photos - when I twisted the leaf to pull it off is when I noticed them! You can see the mating moths in the background. This proves there was another female in my yard before and I never even knew it.

~ Cat

This message was edited Oct 13, 2007 8:25 PM