I nearly left the lamp dark last night because of wind and pending rain. Luckily I changed my mind and this morning the eggbox pile was topped by this fine female Emperor moth (a first for my garden) - and her eggs. If anyone has time to give me a few quick tips on assembling, I'd like to have a go (I'll Google too). Also in the trap: singles of Poplar Hawk, Powdered Quaker, Shuttle-shape Dart, Heart and Dart (also new for this year). Muslin moth and Hebrew Character, plus a couple of Flame Shoulders. And the high number of caddis flies continues. Martin Wainwright Thrupp, Oxon
If your female laid eggs then it's already been assembled as it were. So she'll stop emitting pheromones, the job is done. However, you can raise the larvae easily. Feed them on either Sloe, Hawthorn or bramble and keep them airy, clean and not damp. The larvae are prone to damping off. They'll go through the dark phase to orange to green then pupate. You can easily pull off the pupal case from the area it's been adhered to and store over Autumn and Winter in an outhouse as close to outside temperatures as possible. You want them to emerge at the time the natural population is out and about. From April keep checking for emergence. You have to be fairly quick as males hatching don't hang about if a female is handy. Separate females and hang them outside in a large netted cage. Unmated ones usually climb to the top and hang their abdomens out, and easy to spot the anal feathers. Then you simply wait and watch. To keep the gene pool varied, I usually add any assembled males for mating. As soon as the female has mated they begin to lay eggs, not before.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Peter, that's extremely comprehensive and useful. I've just been Googling and got the point about my female no longer having the necessary unblemished charm. Amazing how strong the drive seems to be with this species. Plenty of material for scientific research there! 'll do my best with the caterpillars, assuming the eggs are fertile. All warmest wishes and thanks again, Martin
ReplyDeleteGetting a pleasant surprise like this in the trap is what makes it all so worthwhile, isn't it?! You never really know what is going to turn up.
ReplyDeleteAll I can add to what Peter has said is that a newly-fertilised female will normally lay some/all of her 200 or so eggs overnight after mating. The eggs take about 15 days to hatch and then, if you rear them indoors, you'll have your hands full until the end of June by which time they should all have pupated (they'll take longer outdoors). Depending upon how many you decide to keep, it can be a struggle to keep up the supply of food-plant towards the end as they are voracious eaters! I tend to use larger-leaved things such as goat willow (Salix caprea) or bramble rather than hawthorn or blackthorn simply to make things easier for myself, but you should choose something which you have a guaranteed supply of. I've heard it said a) that the newly-emerged larvae can be difficult to get started on bramble and b) that you may get problems trying to change food-plant half way through, but I've never experienced either of those myself in nearly ten years of rearing them annually.
Yes, you're absolutely right Dave and it's specially great when you have low expectations as I did this morning. Thanks very much indeed for the extra tips. We have a lot of hawthorn and blackthorn round here so - all being well with hatching - I'll stand by to harvest! Very much obliged as ever.
ReplyDeleteWould be interesting to release some on your hedgerows nearby and see if you can follow their progress in the wild and locate their cocoons later in the year. When on heathland, where the moth seems much more abundant, both the larvae and the cocoons are easily found and I've come across the larvae on extensive grasslands such as Salisbury Plain, but I've never found either in farmland and yet the moths are clearly there and i'd be interested to know if they are using the hedgerows or not. BW, marc
ReplyDeleteThanks v much Marc and that's a really good idea which I'll try to carry out - and will look for other cocoons this summer/autumn. We have a huge amount of blackthorn between Thrupp and shipton-on-Cherwell and quite a lot of hawthorn too. But I didn't get an Emperor at all last year. I'll keep you and the blog posted all v best, M
ReplyDeleteI can probably answer your query Marc. Two seasons ago I was feeding the batch on Sloe from a hedgerow about 60 yards from the house (why I switched over to Hawthorn the following year). One of the batches of food that I brought back, had a single Emperor carterpillar included. I was an early instar as opposed to the orange phase of the rest, so it was not a captive bred one and I spotted it before I put the food into the netted cage.
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