The Official Cecropia Moth Life Cycle Post™
Buckle in kids, this one should be exciting and full of drama.
It all started with a text message. A friend out in Smithville (i.e. further out in the country than me) found some giant caterpillars:
I dropped everything to go see them. I lovingly adopted one caterpillar (who would turn out to be the female), and was also gifted with a cocoon (which held the male), one of many my friend found in her elderberry bush.
Winter came and went, the moths emerged, and got to business right away. They didn’t seem to mind that they were probably siblings.
The female laid eggs.
After about 20 days, they started to hatch:
They hatched three days ago.
Which brings us up to today. Most of them are out of their eggs by now. And they have started eating. I offered them a choice. Elm (good for me, I have lots of elm), or elderberry (please no it’s a baby I don’t have enough elderberry for 50 cecropias please no).
Here’s their little mini-home:
Elm (light green) vs elderberry (dark green)
Guess what the turds picked?
Of course.
My current plan is to grow the elderberry as much as I can (does the elderberry have favorite foods? Can I give it a ritual sacrifice? ???) and then return some of the caterpillars to the motherland when things get too ridiculous. I’m sure my friend will be super excited about that. And I can play with her bees when I visit, too!
Stay tuned (*sigh*)
March 19, 2019