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Photo#1782696
Callosamia promethea - female

Callosamia promethea - Female
Block Island, Washington County, Rhode Island, USA
June 26, 2019
At UV light in beech and tupelo stand. This female was captured and placed in a butterfly habitat. It drew a male to my yard in late afternoon two days later (28 June), and the pair mated soon after. Eggs were laid in a few batches 28-29 June and in a final batch 1 July. Both the male and female died a few days into July and were pinned as voucher specimens. Careful records were kept of the numbers of caterpillars for the 28-29 June batch of eggs at each instar over the several weeks that followed, though the final two instars could not be differentiated. The number of eggs was not tracked, but 41 caterpillars hatched, of which 24 pupated. All were reared on black cherry (Prunus serotina). The late (1 July) batch of seven eggs all eventually died. Below are the full rearing records:

                      Instar                  |
                      1    2    3    4/5    |   Pupa    Dead
6 vii 2019       0
7 vii 2019       1
8 vii 2019       -
9 vii 2019      34
10 vii 2019    38                                             2
11 vii 2019    37                                             3
12 vii 2019    37   0                                        4
13 vii 2019    35   1                                        5
14 vii 2019    11  25                                       5
15 vii 2019     5   31                                       5
16 vii 2019     4   32                                       5
17 vii 2019     0   36    0                                 5
18 vii 2019          32    3                                 6
19 vii 2019          10   25                                6
20 vii 2019           5    30                                6
21 vii 2019           2    32                                7
22 vii 2019           0    34    0                          7
23 vii 2019                 28    5                          8
24 vii 2019                 22   11                         8
25 vii 2019                  5    28                         8
26 vii 2019                  0    33                         8
27 vii 2019                        33                         8
28 vii 2019                        33                         8
29 vii 2019                        33                         8
30 vii 2019                        33                         8
31 vii 2019                        33             0          8
1 viii 2019                         28             4          9
2 viii 2019                         23             9          9
3 viii 2019                         20            11        10
4 viii 2019                         16            14        11
5 viii 2019                         13            16        12
6 viii 2019                          -               -           -
7 viii 2019                          6             21        14
8 viii 2019                          6             21        14
9 viii 2019                          5             22        14
10 viii 2019                        3             23        15
11 viii 2019                        2             23        16
12 viii 2019                        1             24        16
13 viii 2019                        1             24        16
14 viii 2019                        1             24        16
15 viii 2019                        1             24        16
16 viii 2019                        1             24        16

I gave the final caterpillar to Nigel Grindley when I left the island on 17 August, and it died soon after.

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