H. cecropia

Ron Gatrelle gatrelle at tils-ttr.org
Fri Apr 13 03:44:29 EDT 2001


A tail to tell.

When I got to church Wednesday night one of the men of the church had
brought a female H. cecropia he had found that day while working on a
commercial air-conditioning job. He had placed the specimen in a Styrofoam
take-out food box. (It is amazing how consistent non lepidopterists are at
putting specimens into containers where they can beat their wings to
shreds.)
However, in this case only the tip of one wing had gotten damaged. He
hadn't even knocked off any legs.

Taking a sheet of typing paper I made a large triangle envelope and placed
her inside for safe keeping till I could get it home. Of course, I
instructed the man and several others who had gathered around by this time,
on the correct way to make envelopes to protect leps from damage.

When we got home I took her out and placed her on the inside of the front
screen door. Seeing that she was not going to settle down and stay there I
offered my finger for a ride to  -  well I wasn't sure where. Well, for
some reason she took an immediate liking to my finger and started laying
eggs on it. I had my 12 year old daughter get the flash light and go
outside and get a sprig of Sweet Gum. She went to the twig fine and I
affixed it to a stable place in my "bug room" and turned off the light.

My daughter and I then went outside to try and catch the Bull Frog 20 feet
outside our bedroom windows that had been keeping us awake all night for
about three weeks. (This was about our 459th try at catching it.) We had
barely gotten outside when my if-it-moves-don't-bring-it-in-the-house wife
informed us that "that thing" was now loose in the kitchen. We came right
in and found that cecropia had come to rest at the top of an open kitchen
cabinet door - and was busy laying more eggs - on it. This of course was
totally disgusting to my wife (who I try to keep away from my daughter in
matters like this so as not to instill fear in her about every creature
capable of movement - which is anything alive).

We finally got cecropia in a rearing cage and all the eggs pealed off and
into a rearing container. Next day cecropia had laid about 70 eggs (which
is plenty for rearing) and we released her outside.

Now I am remembering when we reared a batch of Regal Moths some years back.
The wife said they were horned devils (having never heard their common
name). They looked like 4+ inch long masterpieces to me. The thing that
bothered her the most was listening to them chew three rooms away at night.
That and the constant tink, tink, tinking, of frass dropping on the
container floor. I just hope she never gives me the ultimatum that it is
the bugs or her. I think you all understand who would have to go.

Ron


 
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