Polyphemus caterpillars

[Galapoheros]

About to get their wings .......I HOPE! Eat and eat and eat. Final instar ...finally. Should start spinning any day now.

 

[bugmankeith]

Wow they got big fast! What are you feeding them, by me I fed mine oak leaves.

 

[dtknow]

They are beautiful! Did you sleeve raise them or feed them on cut leaves?

I think mine may end a bit on the small side. At 4th instar they are anywhere from 1.25 to 1.75 but they haven't shown any signs of molting to final instar yet.

Have you found how delicate they are? I've killed a few trying to move them and suspect a few accidentally killed themselves...their skin especially around the claspers tears very easily...and I assume that their isn't much you can do for a leaky caterpillar.

 

[Galapoheros]

I ordered the sleeves a few years ago but I've never used them. I cut small sucker branches off my trees and put them in a small tub. Yeah, I know what you mean about how you can kill one fast. Until they decide to let go of a small branch, their claspers won't let go. So I've torn some myself. If you look in the pic, you can see I just cut what they are on and let them move on to the new food branches themselves. I just drop them on top and they eventually crawl on the new stuff. Also, I was thinking that since I'm cutting off the branch, it's no longer bringing up water to the leaves. So I'm thinking the caterpillars are not getting a normal amount of water. Because of that, I've been spraying the leaves they are on once or twice a day and limit evaporation by covering it a little. I can see them drink it up. I'm thinking that might have something to do with the size of the caterpillars. I just looked at them 10 min ago and one is finally spinning.

Oh, I sprayed with rainwater and fed them Live Oak leaves.

 

[cacoseraph]

that first picture is insane. actually all of them are pretty crazy, but the first pic looks like you are holding kryptonite in your hand

the picture where the cat is starting to spin the cocoon, its real legs and body parts look very centipede like. crazy picture.

 

[Galapoheros]

Ha, Caco, I think your brain would tell you how a bowling ball looks like a centipede. ...but yeah, you're right. Those front legs are really strong. It could hold itself on a leaf with only two front legs. I wonder which one would win if I put a caterpillar in with one of the S. h. castaneiceps:? . Homer--Mmmmm, caterpillars. Glad they aren't Screamapillars.

 

[LeilaNami]

I think I had one of these when I was younger. Found it on a mountain but I didn't know what species of moth it was. It kept eating my towels though I put it in a cup with a bunch of leaves and immediately it made itself a cocoon by gluing the leaf scraps together. It was fun to disturb it every now and then because it would shake violently and the cup would vibrate. Obviously, I had to name it Shakey. Unfortunately I moved and forgot him on the porch. When I came back to retrieve him the next day, he already left his cocoon and left my life forever. It didn't even let me get to see it!

 

[P.jasonius]

Man I thought mine were big. It's good to see them finally spinning, I keep thinking it's going to be sometime soon but they just keep getting bigger.