My neighbor is letting me use his 70 ft tall oak tree!! haha!! I doubt they will all survive. I actually pawned 30 off to my father to take care of. I had over 130, now I have around 100.

Sandy, As you know I read some of the threads now and then even though IÂm not logged in anymore. But I just had to log on when I saw this thread by you this morning as it made me smile. Naming your lady Cercropia Celeste brings up a little story About 35 years ago while collecting at a place called LambÂs Canyon high on the east slope of the Rockies in Utah my ex, "Celeste", who was up the canyon a ways from me out of sight let out a scream that could raise the dead (and as it turned out stopped all plant growth in the canyon for two years). I dropped and ran thinking she had fallen off a cliff, stepped on a rattlesnake, was being eaten by a bear or ???. Found her happily picking last instar H. cercropia cats off what little was left of a fair sized Populus tremuloides tree. All this ruckus from a normally dignified, quiet and reserved lady over a few cats? She had reared hundreds of Cercropia that I brought home before and from home mating, but these were the first of their cats she had ever found on her own out in nature. BTW, I went through similar with each new (for her) discovered species every place we traveled to. I once told her an earthquake in California was probably her fault because we were collecting up on Mount Tantalus in Hawaii when she found her first "wild" Vanessa tameamea cats the same day that California shook. My standard "calling" set up for the big silk moth females was a 3# coffee can cut open on both ends, 1" square hardware cloth covering the ends, and a wire or heavy twine bail that allowed the can to be hung horizontal from tree branches, etc anyplace I wanted to hang them. Cercropia is a species that mostly flies in the later wee hours of the night before day break, so they do not need to be out in the heat of the day and first light is a good time to check the cages for suitors. Along the lines of what Sherry said, they can be moved to a quiet place and left to separate on their own. I liked to lightly spray paper bags with clean water before putting a single female in each bag, then position the bags close to a light source on one side. This same "technique" works well for placing a male and female in the same bag to mate. The bags sure make it easy to cut the ovum apart in batches for either raising, distributing in nature or sharing with friends. All for now gang Larry

I'm sure your moths are no longer coupled but for future reference, cecropias will disengage when it gets dark. If for some reason, I need them apart sooner than when the sun goes down, I'll put them in a dark room, set a timer for 15 minutes and then go back in to figure out where the male has flown (since he was on the outside of the cage) so I can let him go. Males can mate multiple times. I put the females in paper bags as soon as I realize they have disengaged. Most tend to start laying eggs soon after disengaging and will continue to lay eggs for a few days. OTOH, I have run into a few that do not like bags. I had one this year that sat for two days before laying eggs. Normally when this happens, I let the girl go and move on to another but this year wild males have been few and far between so I waited her out. Anyway, periodically check on her progress until you have enough eggs and then let her go. If for some reason, you want to lengthen the time you're raising cecropia cats (I do it for teaching purposes), there are two things you can do (that I know about): 1) Experiments show you can keep the eggs in the frig for up to 10 days without affecting the developing cats. Put a few in the frig and you can stagger when the cats are coming out. 2) Raise some on box elder maple (Acer negundo). Some people call it the "poison ivy tree" because young trees resemble poison ivy. Cecropias cats still reach full size but they can take up to 3.5 months to get there. WARNINGS: 1) Heat and high humidity are the enemy when raising cecropias. If they get too much of both, the cats can start dropping like flies, especially if conditions are crowded. If you raise them outside, make sure you have good air circulation. 2) Cecropia cats love to drown themselves so if you are raising them on branches placed in water, do what you can to make it difficult for the cats to reach the water. You mentioned raising them on multiple plants. While the eggs are developing, I suggest taking cuttings from each plant you are considering and making sure each holds up in water for at least 3 or 4 days. Some leaves (including most maples I've tried) wither in nothing flat so they are pretty useless unless you are using rearing bags on the trees. My latest cecropia story: Went to an outside wedding reception yesterday. It was on the west side of town, the area where I release my male moths. So, I took 3 cecropia and 4 polyphemus with me, the plan being my kids would release them somewhere in the area. The kids ended up making a bee line for the pool (this was a very laid back reception) so I took the two containers over to the side of the yard for later. The moths, especially the cecropias, ended up being the hit of the party. I gave many moth talks, lots of people took moth pics and the bride absolutely loved that I brought the moths. Some drunk women apparently did not believe that I planned on releasing the moths and took it upon herself to set them free, greatly disappointing the bride's sister who had not seen them yet. KC

Even 15 years ago Belize required a permit to collect leps, and a CITES permit for listed species. And then there's Mexico where the required permits are next to impossible to get unless you are working on a project with one of their own bona fide Lepidopterists', or if you have a grant approved by their government. Any that were smuggled in from those countries were in direct violation of the Lacey Act, and the laws of those countries, period. Now days I think all the countries in North, Central and South America require permits. Accidental AND intentional introductions of new species have been not only allowed since the beginning of time, but propagated by our government. A couple of the best examples are FL and HI where endemic speasies are being replaced by non indigenous species. I guess they think APHIS will stop it, it won't. It's not the would be hobbyist who is the threat, it's our own customs department and those seeking the almighty buck. Personally, I consider any business based around selling any species of wildlife as exploitation of the wildlife. Licensed so called butterfly farms where only those reared in excess are sold do probably take some of the pressure off some of the species, but far to many who sell them for profit only acquire them from wild populations and decimate them. Wouldn't bother me a bit to see every lep for sale company shut down worldwide. Will never happen though... too many countries count on lepidopteran sales to strengthen their economy. Luckily many of them do protect the wild populations though, and those sold only come from butterfly farms. PNG is a good example with the ever present demand worldwide for their "Birdwings". We've strayed a long ways and hijacked this thread pard. Out of respect for Christie, and those who think when they open the thread they'll find out all about H. cecropia (and probably don't care about where we're going)... I think a new thread (and moving these posts to it - Larry Gene?) would be a good idea.