Moth Mating

[Chuck Vaughn]

deering3 wrote:
> 
> Hi folks:
> Is there any one good way to get the large saturnids to mate? I have two
> males and one female polyphemus that have emerged, I picked them up and
> attempted to hand pair them as I would with Papilio but this was not going
> to work. I sort of felt like I was mating two cotton balls! Is it the
> dark? Space? What? please help, as I am sure that these poor moths don't
> have a lot of time left in this world.

Are these polyphemus siblings? If so it's unlikely they will mate. I had
some luck last year mating polyphemus cousins in a cage. The descendents
of those matings will not mate this year. The best luck I've had is
tethering a female and hoping for a wild male to show up. I've been
letting the reared males go free.

Chuck Vaughn <aa6g at aa6g.org>