Stages of Lunar Moth from Egg to Moth (hopefully)

Oops...forgot to say I bought my pop up hamper at HEB grocery store. The top flaps zips all the way shut...no escapees at my house...unlike some folks who have found cats on their bathroom mirrors :o) hee hee

Still wondering if they thought to themselves..."Gee, my left eyebrow looks funny..." ROLF!!!

~ Cat

Maria - Great photos and documentation. Keep em coming!!!

So Cat, tell tell... who had THAT experience? LOL

Becky, even as caterpillars, they are under a strict regimen: Learn how to fly ... to Becky ... as soon as your wings are dry!! LOL

Oh definitely, Maria! Send em my way .... PLEASE!!! LOL! They are incredibly beautiful and would truly grace any garden! I'd love to see one around here for sure!!!! :-)

Wow Cat lucky you! I check for the hampers with mesh at all the stores, and they only have the open top ones, and the mesh is not fine enough anyway. I have only one to my name I snagged at a picked over rack at ross. It was only 5 bucks...Can't tell ya how long I looked there for another stray..LOL!

Hahah Cat, left eyebrow, real funny..You meant Becky right? roflmbo!!!

If that had been me, I would post a pic, LOL. I am already practicing.

(I already had that pic, I swear)

...and now to today's pics:

Cat at 8 days

This 8-day-old was leaving evidence behind

7-days old

Today's 9 day old cat

Great looking cats. They are growing quickly!!! There should be a caterpillar cam on the web :o)

Hmmm...by the looks of the previous posts...there have been other with escapees around the house.

Deb...the meshed hamper I got at HEB was $11...but it's a very fine mesh...ants cannot get in and cats cannot get out :o)

~ Cat

Yeah sounds exactly like the one I have. I'm always looking for more like it, except it would be better to have the zipper on the side. I hate disturbing when I change out and clean. Especially BST because of the odor they emmit...ack! Rather they not ever have to do that at all. They seem less stressed overall if they never have to. Lot friendlier butterflies too.

Maria your Lunas are coming along very well! Anyone know how long these beauties live..Just long enough to mate, usually from 2 days to no longer than a week. Their longest stage of life is as a cat and cocoon.. as Maria is documeting so well!

I have heard some ask why such a beauty, so short a time in the flying form? I would say that is all they know. Only time to regenerate and not compare themselves to any other species. A week would mean they were having trouble finding a mate, a weary and miserable long life to them in that case. The shorter the happier for them. Means they served their purpose.

9 days old

...and a 10-day-old

Your cats are so healthy looking! Good work, Maria!!! You are doing an excellent job raising them! :-)

Here's an interesting fact about them:
Adult Luna Moths have no mouth - they eat nothing. Which is why at the adult moth stage they only live about 1 week!

Here's a good web link with info about them:
http://www.earthsbirthday.org/butterflies/bflys/activitykit/lunamoths.html

Tell me about it! All that work... for one week of happiness. But the cats are adorable and a lot of fun to raise. And when the adults are gone, it all starts over again.

Does anyone know what the life span of GST is?

Here is a quick reference page maria>
http://www.arbirds.org/pdf/ar_butterfly_checklist_2003.pdf (I

have to size this pdf up to 125% to read it,...lol)

Says GST can have 5-9 flight months. (To me ,time as an egg, a cat, and in chrysalis counts as the total life span.) I believe your question was directed at how long they fly, wasn't it?

;-)

To continue on this thread... here are today's pics

... and another pic

Deb:

No wonder the LM is considered a rare find since they are around for just a week...

and GST is considered a pest or should I say that they are sometimes called "Orange Dogs" in FL since their cats can devour citrus plants.

Who really knows the life span of butterflies or moths since there are estimates of 2-14 days to several months.

And those are just (guess)estimates for the most part, aren't they?

Yes Maria, Guesstimates at best. How could they keep track in the wild?...If they did, it wouldn't be completely wild. That we help along some that live at all helps their 2% survival rate. To a Luna 2-3 days is as our 75 years, it's all they know. They are happy to mate and die. Like a flower, an Ipomea (MG) even.....One half day and they die to make seed. If we were to live 300 years we would be miserable here. A thousand years to us is as one day to God... and so on.

Amazing!

Maria, I went to the Butterflies & Moths of America site. Where do I find the info on getting eggs?

Thanks and great work with your cats!

Good luck Gardengirl! I wrote to them about two weeks ago, and they have not answered me to this day. Maybe they think Virginia has enough Luna Moths! Keep trying and let me know if you get through.

It's nice to meet you by the way! :-)

Karen

You too Karen & thanks for the info!

Jeannine

They're really growing Maria! Great job!

I would be interested in raising some too. My book says they are widespread from USA south to Mexico.

Maria, what are you feeding them?

Well spoken, Deb!

Fly Girl, I feed them sweet gum leaves from the tree in my backyard. But they also eat leaves from white birch, persimmon, walnuts, and sumacs trees.

To clarify some issues regarding the Luna eggs: Although Rikki, the State Coordinator for Florida for Butterflies & Moths of America sent me the Luna eggs, she may not have done that in her capacity of State Coordinator for the website. Rikki also runs a company that supports Local Notions Inc. a Florida not for profit organization focused on youth environmental education, and "Living Green" communities. Therefore, she may have sent me the eggs in that capacity and not as a representative of Butterflies & Moths of America. I am lucky that she is very involved in different B&M projects, including setting up a tag and release program for the moths. In defense of Butterflies & Moths of America however, other state coordinators may not have similar programs and would therefore, not be able to send out any eggs.

Maria

And now to today’s pics: I am very concerned about what I saw today. Did I mention that I was very new to this? This pic is of a 12-day old cat that did not move at all. In fact, he appeared to have some kind of drainage coming from him…

The instructions mentioned that cocooning would happen about one month after hatching. I noted that the leaking ones are not as big anymore. The one in this pic is just shedding, right?

Another "dead looking" cat

Well, there is good news, too.

Some even do tricks... Just kidding, he was already on that leave

Maria - I know that my swallowtail cats expel some kind of fluid before cocooning. When lunar moths cocoon do they hang on to the leaf or branch like others? If this is the case I would think that if they were starting the process, they'd be hanging somewhere when they expelled their goo.

Maria et al,

I did get some Luna cats from Rikki- already hatched and the last of the bunch. She said she had obligations to teachers locally which makes a lot of sense if the goal is to repopulate/ maintain environment for them.

I had a leaky Luna cat too. I kept it but it just gets deader looking every day. I had a couple that looked dead like your second photo of concern- they revived. I left them young tender leaves close by in case they got hungry. They ended up shedding. They way they shed looks different to me than how the butterflies do it. These guys seem to get cracks all along their body and it tends to slough in pieces instead of one big blob like the butterflies.

I have a few pics I can post. Is that okay with you Maria? It is your thread after all.

Maggie

Jeannine - LM cats cocoon on the ground but mine would be over 14 days too early. I suppose it could be possible...

Hi Maggie, please feel free to post your pics - the more, the merrier :)
I am getting ready to send some pics to Rikki for her expert opinion.

Fantastic updates Maria. Thanks for sharing all those photos. Can't wait to see the chrysalids and eventually the moths.

~ Cat

Thank you Cat. You all have been very encouraging and I have been enjoying sharing the cats' growth with you. The cats with the odd changes from yesterday are pretty much the same; even the half-shed one is still only half-shed. Well, all I can do is keep them clean, keep food with reach and watch them. But I also still have some fat & happy ones. And boy, do they poop!

:)

Maria - Whenever I raise cats (of any species), I always have many that do not make it. I don't always know why ..... there are so many things that can go wrong. But .... many do make it and that's what counts. In the wild, less than 10% make it to adult butterfly. So I know we are increasing the numbers by hand-raising ...... however many survive.

And let me tell ya ....... I never used to see Monarchs in my area at all. Now they are a common butterfly in most gardens. That increase has been in just the past few years. I know quite a few folks locally (plus classes at my school) that raise them! So the butterfly population is now flourishing here! Today at my school we saw 4 Monarchs at the same time. We saw so many Gulf Fritillaries that I don't even both to count them anymore. We saw some white and also yellow butterflies, but I couldn't get close enough to ID them. And a number of skippers! Plus some gorgeous large moths! Two years ago it was very rare to see a butterfly or moth at my school.

You are doing a wonderful thing to raise and release the Luna Moths. I, personally, hope that you are populating more in Florida with what you are doing. And I hope some find their way south! :-) :-)