attacus atlas feeding

[Nir Avraham]

Hi,

I'm going to get some attacus atlas larva tomorrow. My friend told me that he feeds them on privet. I don't have any privet plants nearby. I saw on google that I can feed them on 'citrus trees', that's means that I can feed them with lemon leaves? I have many many lemon trees near my house, so that would be great!

 

[chanda]

Nice! I wish we could get those over here! Lemon and other citrus leaves should be an acceptable food source, though it is possible that some of the larvae may be reluctant to switch. I've never kept these moths, but my experience with several types of Sphingidae has been that, once started on a particular food plant, the caterpillars can be reluctant to accept another food plant, even though It's one they're supposed to be able to eat. This has seemed to be the case more often with the larger/later instar caterpillars. The smaller caterpillars made the switch more readily.

 

[blacksheep998]

I've never kept them either but supposedly they also eat Ailanthus altissima. That should be fairly easy to collect in most regions.