cecropia rearing/predation

Dale Hoyt dhoyt5 at home.com
Sun May 27 14:43:28 EDT 2001


Back in the 1970's, in eastern Indiana, I reared a dozen or so Cecropia.
When they were the size of sausages I had to go out of town and I wasn't
certain that I could supply them with enough food for the duration. I
put them on a lilac bush in the front yard. On my return I discovered
the bush to have a few bare branches but most of the larvae were still
there. Only they had small, white fly (Tachinid?) eggs stuck to their
thoracic segments on top. I carefully picked the eggs off with forceps
and continued to do so daily over the next week or so. Most of the
caterpillars wandered away (or were eaten) but a few managed to spin
cocoons. I never thought to rear any of the parasitic flies -- I wanted
more cecropias in the neighborhood. That didn't happen, either.

Cheers!
Dale Hoyt


 
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