Subject: Hyalophora euryalis

From: "James F. Hanlon" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 18:51:27 -0400

A Hyalophora euryalis (Ceonothus moth) emerged from it's cocoon on 6-3-96.
The large silk moth is the first in a family of six potential survivors
>from  a total of twelve ova purchased at the Insect Fair (L.A. Aboreteum) in
May of 1995. The larva emerged on 5/24/95. Pupation occurred on 7/13/95.
Prior to last night's emergence, I was concerned about the health of the
six reared cocoons. They were a little shrivelled-up and of a darker color
when compared to a euryslis cocoon discovered in the wild this winter in
the Santa Monica Mountains at Charmalee Park.

I was a little surprised when at around 11:00 last night I sat down at my
desk to listen to a session of Brazilian Portugese, when out from behind of
an 8 X 10 picture of an Amazonian Shaman shown drenching me with a potion,
I get a glimpse of the very-slowly flapping large and beautiful wings of
the euryalis. I only had one cocoon inside my apartment. The rest are in a
screened cage outside. When I inspected the emptied cocoon, I was surprised
that I didn't see a large crack or openning in the cocoon's shell. I can
only assume that the moth exits the cocoon by squeezing out of one end of
the cocoon with the end contracting back into a closed position. Could
someone from this group explain the exit process.

I feel a little attached to this euryalis litter. Afterall, I religously
replenished their foodplant and cleaned their cage weekly for seven weeks.
I even contracted a good dose of Poison Oak on one arm because their
foodplant was running low one evening. Still dressed in suit pants and tie,
I hiked into Temescal Canyon at dusk and mistakenly reached in and clipped
Ceonothus branches which were laden with Poison Oak (Toxicodendron
diversilobum). Well the effort is now paying off and I will release these
moths back into their natural habitat. In the meantime, I would like to
feed the large female euryalis something before her departure back into the
wild. Does anyone have any recommendations on food sources? sugared water?

Sincerely,

Jim Hanlon
Los Angeles, CA

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From: Chris Conlan <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 22:08:35 -0800

Your moth belongs to a family of moths called Saturniidae.  Saturniids do
not feed as adults.  The adult stage is only used for dispersal and
reproduction and all energy used is stored up from the larval stage.
Saturniids also have several pupation strategies.  H. euryalus spins a
cocoon that has a "door" or valve like structure built right into it.  If
you look closely at your cocoon you will see one end that tapers to a
bottleneck.  When the moth hatches from the pupa (which is inside the
cocoon) it releases a fluid which softens that bottleneck end of the
cocoon.  This allows the moth to squeeze right out the "door".  The cocoon
also dries very quickly after this procedure and the only evidence that a
moth has emerged (other than severe weight loss) is usually a few scales
stuck around the end of the bottleneck.  I would also say that it sounds
like your moths are a bit late emerging for the Los Angeles area.  I am in
San Diego and the coastal population here generally peaks sometime from
late Feb to early April.  Even the mountain populations have generally
flown by the end of May.  You may want to try attracting wild males (if
they are still out) if you have a female on your hands.  You would need to
go to an area where they are found naturally and put her outside (either on
a teather or caged) and if any males are around they would fly in to mate
with her sometime between 2:00am and 5:00am.  After the female has mated
and the pair has separated (and no, the male won't call her the next day)
you can put her in a paper grocery bag and she will fly around for several
nights and deposit her eggs on the sides and bottom of the bag.  You would
then have another generation which would give you an excuse to get poison
oak once again.  You can email me for more details if you would like.  Good
luck.
Chris Conlan
[email-masked]  or
[email-masked]