Callosamia promethea - 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.
Images of this individual: tag all Contributed by Aaron Hunt on 26 February, 2020 - 2:06pm Last updated 5 March, 2020 - 9:49pm |