25/09/06 - Eggs of Tree of Heaven Silkmoth - Cynthia Canningii arrive.
09/10/06 - Only one egg hatched, the rest seeming to dry up. I ordered more, and was surprised to take delivery of first instar larvae instead. They are gregarious and cluster until later instars. The single hatchling was happy to be able to join in with the group!
26/10/06 - This caterpillar is shedding its skin and going from the third to fourth instar. Fisrt the caterpillar anchors its back end to something with silk. Then it pushes off its old head capsule (normally black, the yellow face on this one is 'fresh' but changes colour over 24 hours) then it wriggles slowly out of the old skin, leaving it behind. It's very important not to disturb them suring this process or they will get stuck and die (that's why there is a lot of frass in this picture - they were all shedding skins and needed to be left to it)
19/11/06 - This caterpillar has just finished shedding its skin and turned round to have a look! The head capsule is still attached to the skin. This is now the fifth and final instar where the true vibrant colours of the caterpillars are fully developed.
I moved them from a tank to a net cage at this point. They were growing fast and eating huge quantites of privet every day. I had to drive round raiding parks!
19/11/06 - This fifth instar caterpillar is fully grown and looking for a place to spin its cocoon. You can see it's a bit bulgy through the middle! As well as leaves, I added some paper to the caterpillars' home and some used that to spin in. Some just spun against the sides of the cage. The colour of the silk varied from off-white to tan/golden.
FOOD - Privet, wild or variegated. Wild is better for the latter stages as the bigger leaves are useful for them to spin their cocoons in.
01/12/06 - All cocoons placed in the fridge so that the moths do not emerge until spring.
03/01/07 - I decide to allow one third of the moths eclose early. There's still a lot of healthy, good quality privet around very close to my house, so if they laid eggs I would be able to feed the larvae.
19/01/07 - Because I didn't give the moths extra heat, they emerged in a staggered manner, one or two at a time. This first is a male, he's hanging from his cocoon as his wings expand and harden. You can see that one of his hindwings is crumpled. This is probably due to inbreeding as this species is almost fully domesticated for India's silk industry.
30/01/07 - Here's another male moth on my hand. Quite a sizeable moth, and the colours are just stunning. He actually flew round the house a little bit. A very slow-flapping flight, and absolutely silent. It was amazing to watch.
14/02/07 - A close-up of a wonderful large female really shows the colours and furry abdomen.
14/02/07 - A lovely female being inspected by my rather wary daughter. She can say 'moth' and likes to blow at them.
