SOCAL moth questions

[Edward Kim]

Went fishing at seal beach yesterday and found a moth which I later identified as a "salt marsh moth." It was so beautiful I couldn't feed it to my chameleon which turned out to be a great decision because the bugger layed eggs! Does anyone know how to breed them and if their toxic?

 

[lele]

Hi Edward - just found this post. I rear moths so tend to "sniff out" these posts

The salt marsh moth is a Tiger Moth and is in the Arctiidae family along with the woolly bear and some other familiar cats. The eat a wide range of food plants that I am sure you will have on hand in CA. You could feed the very young caterpillars to some small herps if you have any, but as they grow, their hairs will be irritating (not poisonous) and probably not a a wise idea to feed them.

here is a page with pics of the adult and the cats Salt Marsh Moth

and here is one on their whole life cycle which will give you plenty of info if you want to rear them saltmarsh caterpillar

have fun! Moths are very cool critters

lele

 

[Edward Kim]

Lele,
Thank you so much for the information. The female died shortly after laying her eggs and now i'm stuck with approximately 500 eggs. The eggs havn't turn gray and have kept their yellow coloration. Does this mean that they are all infertile?

Edward

 

[lele]

Hi Edward,

yup, in general female moths will die soon after laying. According to the site I linked you to they do turn gray and hatch within 4-5 days. Having reared hundreds of Lepidoptera species I do find some variability within each so I would give them another couple/few days. Other related species will take up to 10 days to hatch.

She deposited them on the 15th? This should be long enough, but temperature and moisture variables can have an effect and if it is a subtle change it may not be as pronounced as it is in the bombyx eggs you may be more used to seeing. Where do you have them? Something I probably should have mentioned is to not have them in a closed container with any foliage as the CO2 that the leaves give off can literally suffocate the eggs. If that is not the case and they don't hatch in the next couple days they may well be infertile but they also would be collapsed. You can tell by looking at them thru a hand lens/magnifying glass. You will see the eggs misshapen and collapsed.

Keep me posted!

 

[Edward Kim]

Lele, I currently have them in a deli cup with a screen lid for airation. Unfortunately none of the eggs are hatching making them way overdue. I'm going to give them another week because their still holding a turgid appearance.

Thanks again i'll keep you updated.

 

[lele]

sounds good, if they do hatch, they will be wandering EVERYWHERE!! so have tender leaves ready. Fortunately, they eat a wide selection of food

 

[Edward Kim]

SOCAL moth question

Lele,

They hatched! I'm stunned i expected that they were infertle since they didn't turn yellow. I did as you suggested and took off the lid off allowing fresh air to circulate in the container. I'm still not sure what to feed them so I threw some leafy greens in and some newly sprouted green onion. I'm still not to sure what to feed them any suggestions?

Ed

 

[lele]

lol! surprise!

go to the 2nd link in my earlier post and look under host plants. They eat a wide variety of field crops as well as several tree species including apple and walnut. Remember that at this stage they have very tiny mandibles and cannot chew through the tough mature leaf margins, so either snip into pieces or get younger, tender leaves. not super young leaves as these do not have the same nutritional value

If you put in several different types of plants you will see which they prefer (though in such a multiphagous species as this they may not be too picky) Just be sure they have not been sprayed with any pesticides!!

Depending how into it you get I have an album on rearing tips (for my Saturniid moth cats) here: Saturniid Rearing Tips it's a bit different than feeding silkworms on chow - have fun, let me know if you have questions

 

[lele]

So Edward, how are those little cats doing?? You said the eggs didn't turn yellow - you had that backwards, they started out yellow and did, in fact, turn gray