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The females I have are fresh and can be kept dormant for many months. Normally I keep them in cold storage until May.

Are you still looking for a female tityus? I have 2 fresh ones. Send me a PM if you are.

Yes they will emerge fine, but I prefer to orient them the way the larvae spin them. Sometimes they will scratch their wings crawling around and after they've expanded they'll have less than perfect wings. I also have hundreds of cocoons in my emerging cages so I can't have them crawling all...

I use a low temp hot glue gun all the time for cocoons. I attach cecropia to sections of cord for overwintering and emerging using a glue gun and have had no problems. You definitely would not want the hot glue touching a bare pupae though, like if the cocoon is ruptured exposing the pupae. If...

I had a bear destroy some bags years ago. It didn't really mess with the larvae though. The bags looked like they went through a paper shredder though! Squirrels are my number one enemy! They chew holes all over the bags to get to larvae and cocoons. They seem to target luna and polyphemus the most.

Collecting at lights is probably the easiest way to find adults. Any females found will have already mated and laying fertile ova.

I leave all my cocoons outdoors over the Winter so that they stay in sync with Spring leaf-out and the emergence of their wild counterparts. Where have you been keeping the cocoon?

Ideally they should be split up after the 3rd instar and moved into larger bags. Some species I tend to crowd a bit. Luna, io and maia larvae can be crowded as long as they have lots of leaves. Most others should be spread out as thin as possible.

Depending on where you're at down there you may have Rothschildia cincta and lebaeu forbesi as well as Eupackardia calleta. These all spin cocoons right on their host. They are all fairly easy to rear as well. I use smaller sleeves for hatchlings and tend to crowed them a bit at that stage...

I personally rely on my own captive breeding to supply cocoons for my own purposes. I do collect some cocoons every year if I find them. In my area, cecropia and promethea are the easiest to find because they are usually spun on their host plant and are conspicuous. Cecropia are usually found a...

Looks like a poly to me!

Lol, on the neon luna! You never know what might pop up though! As far as finding larvae, the best time is at night with a bright led light. The larvae will be actively feeding and they kinda glow against the foliage. Knowing what food plants are preferred is a must as well. Luna in the...

The best places to find cocoons in the wild is along the edges of woods, like where they meet an open field. Fence rows and along roads where oak, cherry and sassafrass are growing are good spots as well. Species that spin on the ground or have cocoons that end up on the ground are very hard to...

The dark polyphemus in that photo are an extremely rare color morph that exists in the wild. It is controlled by a recessive gene. I stumbled upon it about 8 years ago and have maintained it to the present. The light, yellowish cecropia are a new morph I call golden. It is also a naturally...

Yes that's just a small bit of what I'm doing with these big moths! Which photo are you referring to about the freshly emerged ones?

I've never seen a luna like the one you described! I've been selective breeding them for the pink expression in the Spring form and large eyespots. Here were a few of my breeders from last April.

There are a fair number of really interesting Saturniids within our boarders! I have been rearing them for over 20 years now and I never get tired of seeing a nice batch of Spring form lunas or big fat cecropias!! There are even some cool color morphs becoming available!

I also collect my tityus stock from Maryland. Good luck with them!

Have you weighed your tityus larvae? They look like nice ones!

I don't have a care sheet on these of my own. I did a lot of research before I got the females. I found them to be very easy. The larvae are a little picky when it comes to substrate. I'm fortunate to have easy access to the right sub for them though and I really didn't have any real issues.