First 2013 Cecropia moth out

[bankercheryl]

either Tues or Wed. here in W. Bridgewater.

 

Last fall I left quite a few raised promethea and cecropia cocoons out where they had been spun up to 'fend for themselves' overwinter. Yesterday PM when passing by the location of a cecropia cocoon in a small Cherry tree while mowing the grass, noticed that there was a pair of mating cecropia moths hanging a few inches from the cocoon. Therefore it's quite certain that the cocoon eclosed the female which 'called' a wild male sometime between late Tuesday PM and very early Wed AM before sunrise. It's less certain whether the female eclosed Wed AM, or a day earlier.

 

Don Adams

[George Boettner]

Thanks to Laurie Sanders for doing this story on our winter moth lab.
Hear the spot at:


http://nepr.net/news/umass-scientists-use-european-fly-larva-eradicate-winters-moths-northeast#.UZ_hCrPhxMs.facebook


About the only changes I would make is that we are actually
working on Vancouver Island, and in years of doing this I still
haven't seen Vancouver :) But more people know where Vancouver is.

Oh and now up to 85,000 mouths to feed...hoping to push this
number closer to 100,000, but a short season will keep us under our
2012 best at 120,075! But Laurie was correct when she did it.

And I should point out the fly can only use winter moth as a host
so this is a safe choice.

Back to feeding...Feel free to share the link.



Jeff Boettner
UMASS-Amherst

[bil...@aol.com]

Hello All,
I've been meaning to reply to this email for a couple of days, but have been very busy with gardening.  I am finally thawing out this evening, after a freezing day planting things out in the rain--in front of the woodstove tonight!  just about the latest we've ever had a fire going, I think.

Anyway, I also have had some first eclosures the last few days.  My first Luna eclosed on May 20th--a male, who flew off at dusk when released.  On the 22nd the first Promethea eclosed while I was at work, also another male, and I released him around noon on the 23rd.  On the 23rd, we had the first Cecropia, also a male, as well as a male and two female Polyphemus.  The weather has been pretty lousy since the rains began Thursday afternoon, and I didn't release the males until yesterday, Friday, and I've kept the two females indoors in their Love Shack.  I put them out this evening, Saturday, though it's still raining, and going to get pretty cold, and I'm not hopeful.  But it's already been a couple of days since they eclosed, and we'll give them a chance.

Finally, I also had 3 Giant Swallowtails eclose yesterday!  Very exciting!  though again, it was hard to put them out in such cold, rainy weather, and wonder if they are really going to survive very long.  I tried to put them in a sheltered spot, and they were gone today, so hopefully they've survived.

Our Rue plants have given us a few seedlings, as usual.  We also bought two Gas Plant seedlings this year (Dictamnus), another hardy perennial, not native but also used as a Giant Swallowtail host.  We'll see how that goes.

Hope everyone is keeping warm,
Best,
Bill Benner
Whately, Franklin Co., MA
bil...@aol.com

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