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Butterfly Garden

Imperial Moth EMERGENCY!!

perennialfan273

12 years ago

Hello

I found an imperial moth at work today. I put in in an old tin we had lying around. I put a bunch of different kinds of leaves in there (sweetgum, oak, willow, paper or river birch, etc). It is not eating ANYTHING!! And it isn't pupating either. I don't want to kill this thing, but I really want to see it when it hatches, so I'd like to raise it.

HELP!!!

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Comments (7)

MissSherry
12 years ago
Is it a last instar caterpillar? If not, could it just be molting/between instars?
Sherry
perennialfan273
Original Author
12 years ago
I'm not sure. All I know is it looks just like this:

http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/node/2576

Also, all it does is try to escape from it's container. Could we possibly chat about this over the phone?? If you don't mind, send me an e-mail with your phone number at someguy00273952@yahoo.com.
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Yes, me, too, Cathy and Sandy! I agree that it's a male, KC. I looked them up, and read that they'll use a lot of different trees, most any tree in the woods around here. And the picture of a male by a female showed the male with a lot of purple and a narrow body at the bottom, much like this one. Somebody brought me a last instar imperial caterpillar years ago, I put it in a container of clean dirt, it burrowed and emerged the next spring. The cat looked like a hairy pickle! :) Sherry
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Sherry, I think your right about using tender leaves. Even my large monarch cats still prefer the tender shoots (wish they didn't, it's hard cutting of the flower buds!) I have three lace leaf Japanese maple trees I'm hoping they will eat. They have very soft leaves and maple is listed as a host plant. Alch21, I'm located in PA. I don't have sweet gum but I do have plenty of oak and pine and Japanese maple. I was surprised to read that pine was a host plant, any variety in particular? I'm glad to hear that you had luck with oak. Will they eat that even as brand new cats? I'm worried I won't notice right away when they hatch, I read not to put leaves in with the eggs or you could suffocate them. Also, do you know if they have more then one generation a summer? Or will they definitely winter over as pupa? If they should all hatch and live I don't think I will keep all of them until spring. Anyway, please let me know if you have raised them until the moth stage and any tips you have. It would be amazing to see them emerge as huge moths. The female I collected the eggs from I found laying on the mulch of my flower bed. She had only about half of her wings left and deposited about 15 eggs right on the mulch. When I put her in a container she deposited about 15 more eggs, then died. It was both an exciting and depressing experience at the same time. Thanks for the info ladies, Cathy
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At least 5 more cats hatched last night! I can't see any frass yet, however it would be very tiny at this point so I might just not be seeing it. I do have a white paper towel under them so hopefully I will see some soon. I can't imagine there aren't any host plants around here because why else would the female moth lay eggs here. At this point I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will eat the pine. There's not much more I can do. When you say keep the pine watered, do you mean keep a branch in a vase then cut pieces off to give them or do you keep the branch in a large enclosure in the vase with the cats on it making sure they can't fall into the water? It is wonderful how long pine stays fresh. I looked up the pine devil and it would be great to have them around. Maybe this is just the start of many beautiful large moths coming to my yard. Up until now I didn't even know of any others besides the luna. When I found a nearly dead cecropia a few days before a 4th of July picnic I had this year, everyone there was in awe of it (including me)! My daughter put it in a shadow box to hang on the wall, it's just so beautiful. One more question. Do all of the large moths have only one generation per year and need to winter over here in the north? It will be great to see them emerge next year (if we make it that far), but it would be nice to have one that emerges that same summer. Luna's are the ones that I would really like to raise, but I read conflicting info as to whether they can enclose that same season. Thanks again, cathy
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MissSherry
12 years ago
Imperial moths wander and wander a lot before making their pupa, so just keep it in the enclosed space you've given it. In nature they go underground to make their pupa, but it'll go under the leaves and do the same thing - be sure it has several inches of leaves. It's normal for it to want to stay on the move for a while before burrowing and pupating - it'll settle down soon. A friend found one wandering around just like yours and gave it to me, but I can't remember how long it took for it to settle down and make the pupa.
Congrats on your find!
Sherry
MissSherry
12 years ago
P.S.
If the info I gave you isn't enough, let me know, and I'll e-mail you my phone number.
Sherry
KC Clark - Zone 2012-6a OH
12 years ago
What I would do:

1) Put about 8" of good, moist topsoil in a 5-10 gallon bucket.

2) Lay various hostplants in there, including pine (not fir or the other conifer that escapes my memory right now)

3) Put the cat in the bucket

4) Go back in a couple hours. If it is still wandering around, I'd say it wants a hostplant you don't have. My very first imperial was a 5th instar that starved itself to death because it wanted only pitch pine and I was no longer had access to pitch pine.
MissSherry
12 years ago
KC, from the looks of it in the picture, I'm pretty sure it's through eating and ready to pupate.
But it won't hurt to add host plant leaves.
Sherry
KC Clark - Zone 2012-6a OH
12 years ago
I did not notice there was link to a picture. I was posting at 7:55 and had to be somewhere at 8, but it was an EMERGENCY so I made time.

From the pic, it does not look bright green so I agree that it is done eating.

What Sherry wrote will work. What I wrote will work. Putting layers of paper towels in a bucket will work. But be aware that the caterpillar is probably not going to pupate for 10+ days. It will become unable to move. It will shrink considerably. That is the way it happens so don't be discouraged by the poor appearance.

Overwintering is the tricky part. I'm batting way less than 50% the last few years. It is very discouraging.

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?what to do with this little guy?

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