InsectNet forum

I thought it would be nice to have a thread where breeders could regale us with stories of success, abysmal failures, food sources which were never expected to work, or any other related findings.

I recall finding a book in my local library in the early 1970s which was done by a breeder named Paul Villiard. It is titled Moths and how to rear them.

In his book, he related stories and showed black and white pictures of at least 20+ species of moths which he had reared. I believe the book was initially published in the late sixties.

He also showed how to prepare lepidoptera for your collection. A wonderful and quite informative book. A first of a kind at the time.

Of course, I eventually got myself a copy !

I have a copy of Villiard's book, I was probably the only person who would check it out of the public library. Somehow a friend found a copy for me
and gave it as a gift. At the time Villiard wrote that book- Argema mittrei was a mystery, now...
I raise something nearly every season. I've mentioned some of this season's experiences in other threads. I bring home captured female Saturniidae,
or buy ova. Sometimes I'll buy diapaused stock for breeding, but it is more expensive and not 100% reliable.
I have an antique breeder's book- 'A Silkmoth Rearer's Handbook" published in 1956 in London. Names do change- but not technique, sure, some things get refined, and we have access to new equipment and materials.
This season I did have a higher than normal mortality rate for my Hyalophora euryalus, and it wasn't the black fluid mystery death, something else
took out 10 larva in various stages. We had a very wet spring, which caused one cherry tree to get some disease caused by too much water, I don't
recall the name, but it made the leaves spotty and yellowish, luckily, another cherry was unaffected. I've got the namesake food plant,
ceanothus, but it is hard to put a sleeve on that stuff without a good reason.
In case anyone missed it, never feed Rhodinia verecunda Lilac, Syringa vulgaris, if I spelled that correctly. It'll take forever for them to grow, we have yet to see an adult moth, so it could be worse than I think.

The only butterfly species I ever raised through an entire cycle was our ubiquitous Monarch. When I was 9 or 10 years old I read that the monarch fed on milkweed. I learned to recognize the plant and before you knew it I was looking for monarch eggs and finally discovered one on a leaf one day.

I kept diligently at the upkeep and before you knew it an entire cycle went by and I had a butterfly emerge one morning. It was very exciting to see it emerge from the chrysalid and unfurl its wings.

However, I decided after that (more or less) that it took an awful lot of work and diligence (then I cared for); and thus found catching butterflies was much more fun.

Eventually, I came across some 2nd instar Polyphemus caterpillars on wild Willow and made a second attempt at raising them through but, they were even harder to keep up with (food-wise) and then definitely decided swinging the net was my best path forward.

I too have Villard's book. I offered it up for sale along with a bunch of other antique books as part of a package, and nobody wanted them.

On to the story.

I had about 200 4th instar luna in a 30 gallon aquarium in my bedroom. So long as they have food they'll stay there, so it wasn't covered. I was out late with some friends, got home about 2am and laid my head on my pillow. I felt something cold and wet. Got up, turned on the light, and there are luna cats all over the room- and no leaves in the aquarium. It took 45 minutes to find them all, then I had to get back in the car and go out to grab more Walnut; got to sleep about 4am.

200 larva must have made an alien looking cocoon.
I raised a batch of luna indoors in an open room as well, a little different, I hadn't raised anything in years ,and forgot how much they eat, I went
to the nursery and bought live sweetgum. At the end, they went through two 5 gallon trees every day, most of them spun up in the trees themselves,
but when I moved, there were a few that I found under shelves. Before they spun up, I had a tarp spread out under the trees, and each morning
I'd wake up to the sound of caterpillar droppings hitting the tarp like rain. No one ever asked why I kept bringing trees into my apartment.

The most rewarding breeding I had was of Philotes sonorensis from self collected eggs. I had the chance that my job at the time would bring me to the LA area during February/March. It was a bit difficult sourcing the host plant in Europe. Dudleya species. Each caterpillar would eat a small plant on their own going from first to last instar. I didn't get a pairing the year after and couldn't continue.

Other than that I also had 200 caterpillars of Saturnia pavonia at the same time. In their final days, I had to get a wheelbarrow of hazelnut every day for them.

The breeding that took the worst turn was of a species of Spilosoma. I didn't know that they empty their guts before pupating. I had about a hundred of them in a small plastic container. There was only so much liquid it could hold before the caterpillars started to drown...

Finally, I also had a breeding of Aglia tau of self collected eggs. The female came to my light trap, that was the second or third time ever in my life that I had put out a light trap. I was stunned when I saw it sitting next to the trap the next morning. The caterpillars look really great. I had a pairing and a new generation, but those caterpillars died when transported in a car and the sun hit the plastic cup they were in.