cecropia help?

[RENE BOUTIN]

graak wrote:

> Hi, I'm new to this and wondered if anyone could tell me how I should go
> about 'raising' a cocoon that I think is in the Cecropia family. I want to
> put it into a screen cage (outside) so that I can see the moth before it
> flies off. It was taken from a maple tree and the branch is now in a
> terrarium inside. What do I do?
> Thank you for any help.
> Tana
> Kingston, Ontario

It should be kept outside in the shadow and protected from predators or
parasites(it might already be parasited)sprayed with a little water once in a
while if the area is to dry.
         This is so it emerges at the same time asthe others in the wild.If
you`ve got a female,males will come around seven or eight at night and try to
mate her, as long as she is not mated you will smell the scent of her and so
will the males from afar.
      when you have reunited the couple it will mate for up to 24 hours,then
the female will give you a few hundred eggs that will hatche within a week and
that you will feed the leafs of the maple tree you found it on,or lilac or of
another tree close by.After about 40 days,you should have a couple of hundred
cocoons if you have raised them idividually cause if one gets sick it will
contaminate the others if they are together.
                                                                  René