Wow, congratulations!!! What magnificient beauty!!! I need to get us some cigars, ughh, will champagn be better? lol.
Kim
Woohoo!!! A Rothschildia lebeau forbesi - Forbes' Silkmoth
Cat, I was looking at bugguide, and by their pictures, yours looks like a female. The male has a longer body part, and more pointed.
Just my guess, tho.
~Lucy
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://bugguide.net/images/cache/0L4ZZL5Z8L1H9HZRUHCH9HLREH1HIH8ZLL5ZGHDHHLVHEH1ZPHRRPHZR6HWZ6HLR4LLR8H5ZKL4ZKL8ZRL6ZGLAZ.jpg&imgrefurl=http://bugguide.net/node/view/28931&h=87&w=125&sz=5&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=U4v2PcxKEKV4WM:&tbnh=63&tbnw=90&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmale%2BForbes%2BSilkmoth%2B%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG
Bring on the bubbly!!! :o)
Okay...got email back...it's a boy...rats!
Was hoping for a female so I could breed her...but alas no such luck.
Was going to wait until tomorrow to release him during the day but my friend said it was okay to turn him loose now. I figured he might as well start prowling tonight - no sense making the man wait :o)
Here's one last look at him before I call it a night.
~ Cat
Okay...realized I had to set him down somewhere so I tried to get him to perch on a beam...he ended up flying to the eave. Good for me because I was able to get some more photos before saying good night to him.
ps...my moth-man friend said the antenna on the male are bigger and wider - as can be seen in the previous photo. Heck, they all look the same to me...but guess he knows best.
~ Cat
One word. SUPPERB!!! Look at those big feather-like ateneas (sp?). Fly beautiful fly! Thanks Cat, for sharing such beautiful experience with us.
Kim
Yes, I can see his body part is longer in the last 2 pictures. It looked short in the first picture. That's all I was going by. I can tell kittens apart tho. lol : )
I couldn't tell them apart even when the parents were breeding!!! Those photos on the bugguide are mostly mine - hence the mating pair one :o)
Heck, I still can't tell them apart...if it weren't for the moth-man pointing them out to me. Maybe if the remaining cocoon ecloses I'll get a female and get some good photos.
~ Cat
He's just beautiful! Great job Cat!!!
That is so neat, what a handsome moth! I love the "full frontal" shot, he's got such character.
Hope the other cocoon is a female, fngers crossed!
Beautiful Cat!!! and he's a she...
Congratulations!!!
Male on right in pic: http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/TexasPuddyPrint_1192163929_921.jpg
What a surprise, her eclosing early like that!! WOW! You go girl!
And to think we have baby pictures of him! that's so cool to have seen the whole cycle
oh how fabulous Cat. He is so awesome. Hope you end up with a female or 2 as well so you can keep them going
Moth # 2
Egg laid 10/13/07
Caterpillar hatched 10/19/07
Caterpillar pupated 12/29/07
Moth eclosed 02/04/08
The second one emerged early this morning.
I believe this one is a female. The abdomen is much bigger. Have sent photos to the San Antonio moth-man so probably won't know until I get home from work tonight and read my email.
I've put 'her' in the reptarium outside...just in case it is a female - her scent will hopefully attract a male from the neighborhood. If so, I should see some moth activity in the yard Tuesday night. If it turns out it's not a female...oh well, I'll release him tonight.
~ Cat
This is the booty end...quite big...so am hoping it's a female!
This message was edited Feb 4, 2008 10:22 AM
Moth # 2:
Egg laid 10/13/07
Caterpillar hatched 10/19/07
Caterpillar pupated 12/29/07
Moth eclosed 02/04/08
Another photo...I still can't tell by the antenna...so I'm leaning towards the abdomen as a tell tale sign. If it's female...she's supposed to have a good 250 to 300 ova in there just waiting for a male to fertilize them!!!
~ Cat
This message was edited Feb 4, 2008 10:23 AM
Moth # 2:
Egg laid 10/13/07
Caterpillar hatched 10/19/07
Caterpillar pupated 12/29/07
Moth eclosed 02/04/08
...and another before I head off to work.
~ Cat
This message was edited Feb 4, 2008 10:22 AM
Looks to me like you might have one of each!! (We can hope :-)
Great pics Cat!!
Awesome thread, Cat! What a gorgeous moth! It rates right up there with the Luna Moth! You've done a wonderful job documenting this moth!
So when are you publishing your first Butterfly/Moth rearing book??? :-)
Ha Ha Becky :o)
Well, I sneaked a peak at my email. San Antonio moth-man says it's a female!!! Woohoo. Will leave her outside starting tonight in the hopes she'll attract a mate. Last time I just left the reptarium flap opened and a male quickly found his way inside...sneaky horn dog :o) Hope it's goes just as easily this time around.
~ Cat
How cool is that? I remember seeing your thread on the male moth finding the female! Who supposedly traveled miles and miles away to find his mate. Sneaky horn dog he IS!!!! lol,lol.
Kim
Bummer...the female has absconded :o)
I have to work the midnight shift in a couple of hours so I set the cage out around 530pm and unzipped a corner and came inside to snooze. Checked on her about half an hour ago and she wasn't in the cage. Guess she got frisky and found the corner I'd unzipped and flew off.
Man oh man - who'da thunk it! She's been clinging from the top mesh for the past few days and never moved. Guess I was wrong.
Oh well, do hope she finds a mate and continues the cycle. The ash trees in my neighbor's yard are huge...doubt I'll ever see a caterpillar way up in those...but perhaps she'll come back and lay eggs on the privet in my back yard and I'll find eggs on my privet or perhaps caterpillars in the next few weeks.
~ Cat
We can hope can't we?
That's just what we'll do!
She had a better chance to spread her scent around being loose. Maybe she's up in there with a he-moth right now..:-)
debnes
TexasPuddyPrint
Is the for sure now that to walk accross the border passports are required? I have to go down there on the 18th and there's a retired lawyer that likes to go with me about once a year and go into Progresso for medicine. I can get someone from the school to go with him since I haven't redone my passport and if the walk accross's have to have it now.
Jameso
Deb...yes, I am very hopeful that the wench moth found a mate and had done the deed. It is truly amazing how the male moth can hone in a female's scent from miles away! Am thinking she got out because she wanted to perch in one of the trees...the scent travels better up in the air as opposed to being in a cage a couple of feet off the ground and surrounded by a wooden privacy fence. Guess all that hinders and distorts the scent trail.
James...
For air travel - a passport is required.
For land crossing - effective 01/31/08 US and Canadian citizens need to present a government issued photo ID (like a driver's license) and proof of citizenship (like a birth certificate) if they do not have their passport.
However...having a PASSPORT would make it so much faster and easier to process travelers. We can just swipe the passport through our card readers instead of having to type in name, dob, citizenship, type of document provided and document number. We will no longer be taking verbal claims of citizenship :o)
The powers that be state in June the passport at the land borders will be required...we'll see if that really happens.
Concise info can be found here:
http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacation/ready_set_go/
~ Cat
This message was edited Feb 8, 2008 3:56 PM
Thanks for the info. Didn't realize you worked there. I go to Progresso because I think its the safest.