This is also known in Spanish as "Cuatro Espejos" - which means Four Mirrors...the photograph shows why.
This one eclosed today. I didn't get home until about 8pm and it was clinging to an ash sapling I have in the reptarium.
This is a first for me. Found the cocoon and brought it home to babysit. Have no idea if this is male or female...so if anyone knows...do tell.
~ Cat
Don't know if male or female, but do know...... it sure is pretty! :-)
Wow, that is beautiful, lucky you!
Got email from a mothman - it's female :o) WOOHOO!!!
~ Cat
I just checked....Thank you so much for adding it to BugFiles! I was going to suggest it.
Wow Cat, she is beautiful!
That is so gorgeous!!! I am amazed that moths are just as beautiful as butterflies.
Josephine.
Absolutely gorgeous!!
Thanks for sharing your picture!
Lisa
Found the cocoon and brought it home to babysit.
Sheila,
There were two posts on the cocoons:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/751293/
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/748592/
~ Cat
That is beautiful!
I thought about you last week. A bunch of my friends and I were remarking on a couple of sightings
of Zebra Longwing Butterfly - Heliconius charitonius. My initial thoughts are escapees from the butterfly museums, but as much as the weather was more Central American than Texan this summer one wonders...
Looking for my first chalice blooms this fall too!
Rj
Rj...my chalice vines have taken over the yard. Do wish someone lived nearby who wanted them. I get tired of cutting them back. If you want more cuttings there are several long branches with aerial roots.
Yes...there have been reports from all over about Zebra Longwing sighting. Perhaps all the rain we've had lately prompted an emergence. They do like to hang about in the areas with overhanging moss and shade. I often see them flitting along the sunlight path at one of the parks that borders the river.
Have been babysitting the female forbes' silkmoth for the past few hours. I have her in a reptarium in the middle of my backyard and that is sitting on top of an inverted rubber maid tub on a bench. Am trying to get her as high up into the air as possible. Am hoping she will "call" in a male. Was told she'd start to do that on the second night...and tonight is night two. She was vibrating her wings earlier so the pheromones must be wafting through the air...but I haven't seen or heard anything flying around in the dark. The nearest forbes' silkmoth I have seen is about six miles away from me. Am hoping a male will hone in on her pheromone - if I see one I will open the cage door so he can get inside and mate with her. I do so want to raise these beauties from eggs.
Have been playing email tag with my mothman buddy. I keep asking for advice and he keeps sending information and suggestions. We're starting to sound like expectant parents!!! ROLF!!!
Bad thing is I'm the one out here who has to watch over her until around 2 a.m. and he's a couple hundred miles away and most likely fast asleep by now. Will have to do this for the next few nights...babysitting a female moth from around 7pm to 2am. Yawn...scratch scratch...it's not even 10pm and I'm getting tired.
Here's a photo of her a few minutes ago.
~ Cat
This message was edited Oct 11, 2007 10:02 PM
Cat that is soooooooooooooo awesome. Congrats!!!!!!!!
WOOHOO!!! It worked!!! I set the female out around 7pm and have been checking on her periodically. Around 1035pm I went outside and just as I was coming back inside I saw a shadow fly overhead. I went back outside and sure enough...there was a male forbes' flitting around the yard. He wouldn't slow down for a photo! He kept trying to hone in on the female. I moved the cage toward the corner of the yard he was flitting around and opened up the flap. He was inside within seconds.
I zipped the flap closed and he was flitting around probably thinking how the heck did I get trapped in here?
But needless to say, it took him mere seconds to find the female and he was on her like a dog on a bone!
My mothman buddy said they'd be stuck together for about 24 hours. Can you imagine that. He's on her in under five seconds!!! SLAM! BAM! Sit back and enjoy the ride because he'll be at it for 24 hours Ma'am!!!
Here's a photo of the happy couple!!! Am sure he also thought...this was easier than shooting fish in a barrel!!! ROLF!!!
The male is the one on the right...he seems bigger in wing size but her abdomen is bigger than his. Hope that mean she's got a couple hundred of eggs waiting to be fertilized in there!
~ Cat
Here is the male looking around for the female. I had her in a reptarium that was on top of the rubber maid tub and he's flitting around under the bench trying to hone in on her scent. Hey buddy...look up about three feet more!!!
~ Cat
This message was edited Oct 11, 2007 11:34 PM
I turned the sapling they were on around so now the male is on the left.
~ Cat
Wow Cat, that is amazing. Great pictures also. Your are a good moth mama. : )
~Lucy
Wow Cat that is such a treat! Good job, you and Mothman did!!
I had seen the thread on the cocoons but forgot about it. Thanks for adding them. You need to put them on the BugFiles entry too.
Great photos also!
That is completely amazing. To be able to know how all that works, be there at the right times. Do you know if there were more than one Male attracted? I wonder how they duke it out where there is more than 1. We need a national geographic crew to film now!
Now your a bonafide expert.
Glad to hear we aren't the only ones sighting the zebra long wing. It really was very tropical this summer. We've also spied a couple other tropical guys, but are sketchy on i.d.
Sure, will take more chalice cuttings whenever you get the time. They are doing much better than I expected them too. I'm letting them go dry right now as I hear that helps them bloom.
Rj
Cat,
Such terrific postings of the raising, and capturing the wonderous activities of those adventurous male moth. Look at the trouble, distance he travels to find his mate ~ that's amazing. This summer I happened on this couple. For 2 days, I thought they were brown fallen leaves on my brugs cuttings that wouldn't be blown away by wind....a closer look. Viola! These beauty were mating like you mentioned over 24 hrs. A beautiful experience to see them, from there I'm more and more aware of the butterflies' wonders! I'm now a proud Momma to- be- of a Tersa Cat. :-)
Hmm...cool. One of those ended up in my garden a couple of years ago...was beautiful
Would you look at the antennae on that male!!! Great photo Lily! Big difference from the female's. No wonder they are able to detect female pheromones from miles away!!!
By the way...the male did his job and was clinging to the side of the reptarium yesterday evening so I opened the door and released him. The female started to lay eggs a couple of hours later. So far I've counted various clusters on the plants I put in the reptariums for her...Texas Privet, Wax Privet and Mexican Ash. She also laid eggs on the meshed sides of the reptarium as well as pieces of brown paper I hung down in strips. I don't want to harm the eggs by trying to remove them from the mesh so I'll most likely move an ash sapling up next to them so when the caterpillars hatch they'll have a readily available food source.
On a good note...while I was checking the Mexican Ash saplings (my neighbor's tree drops seeds by the thousands and there are always sprouts in my flower beds so I put them into pots) around the yard I found one with six eggs on it. Seems there was another female in the vicinity that left them. WOOHOO!!!
~ Cat
This message was edited Oct 13, 2007 8:04 PM
Looks like you will be a busy cat keeper Cat! Nice photos on your thread. Nice Tersa pic too Lily.
Wow...so you are going to be busy when all those guys hatch.
They like the Mexican Ash? I knew I was subconciously raising these ash trees for a reason!
So will that male keep looking for other females? What is the life span in their winged state?
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
Wow, then she or a female really doesn't get to enjoy flying too much..
Very interesting. I'm glad you were honored, as we get to peak in from our windows and see these rare things. I love stuff like this.
I considered trying to raise fire flies for a while. I found a published study on the internet from a guy who had raised them. At this time, I think it requires focused dedication which only the garden gets at this point.
More egg photos.
~ Cat
Oh how cool is that! Thanks Cat. Should I happen on those in the future, I'll know what they are.
Yes...I will remember these eggs too...helps to see photos to know what to look for.
...and more eggs
~ Cat
Wow! The eggs couldn't be very big, about the point of a pencil?
The eggs are about the size of a seed bead... 1/8" diameter at the most.
~ Cat
We have kittens!!!
The eggs she laid on the 13th have started to hatch. Woohooo!!!
~ Cat
This message was edited Oct 19, 2007 11:43 PM
Nice documentation Cat!
These mirror moths are so beautiful!!! I guess your busy time of the year has just begun sistah!
Thanks for bringing all this home to us!
debnes
Oh wow! Congrats on the little fellas!
These little buggers are hatching - can't even get an accurate count. Keeping them fed with tender leaves is keeping me busy. I must drag out the 8ft ladder to reach the new growth on the tips of the branches :o)
~ Cat
You be careful up on that ladder. We don't wanna see you needing the prayer forum.
~Lucy
Hi Cat,
Have you thought about getting yourself a small legustrum just to feed these fellas? If you keep it in a pot, prevent them from going to seeds, you've have an easy access to the leaves to feed this hungry ones. Oh, Salix too, they grow very fast, and you don't have to bother with the ladder.
Lily...
I have a potted wax privet as well as Texas Privet but they don't seem to like them at all. As soon as I move the caterpillars to the Rio Grande Ash they star chowing down. Guess that is a good thing as that tree is plentiful around my neighborhood. I usually find sprouts on the sides of the trunks that are within reach but my neighbor had cleaned up his tree last month and removed all those side shoots. I've gotten a bit smarter...I just grab the metal rake and pull the branch down and clip the cuttings I want :o)
They are growing quite well. I have more that hatched in the reptarium - the eggs were laid on the mesh and I did put privet cuttings next to them but like I said they caterpillars just don't want that stuff so they start wandering around - seems they are tiny enough to crawl through the mesh :o) and I've found several on the outside of the meshed reptarium. I had to go on a scouting expedition to round them all up. Did put in some ash cuttings next to the other egg clusters - at least they stay on that when they hatch .
Will post photos later of the growing buggers.
~ Cat
Here are a couple of photos of the growing little kitties. There are some that are a day older - you can see how big they are compared to the ones that hatched a day later. I've moved them all into a large 18 qt container and put a variety of cuttings of privet, ash and citrus. Will let them decide what they want to eat. All three types of larval host plants are being eaten but the majority are going for the ash.
~ Cat
