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Photo#37398
Promethea Silkmoth female - Callosamia promethea - female

Promethea Silkmoth female - Callosamia promethea - Female
Town of Baileys Harbor, Hidden Corners Sanctuary, Door County, Wisconsin, USA
July 5, 2003
Female came to night light. I have reared this species several times. Had an interesting experience with one of the females I released. These are notes from my data base: "Released female toward evening; the next day, around noon, I noticed three male Prometheas flying near our house, in the area where I had released the female the night before. Soon there were seven more males (for a total of 10) flying around the area. This was quite unusual, because they usually fly at night. These ten males flew around all afternoon, until about 4:30 p.m. They were searching for the female who obviously had emitted a strong pheromone. They searched under rocks, under leaves, on the screens, on the house siding, every nook and crannie. The female was nowhere to be found. Can't blame her!"

correction: male promethea moths fly in the daytime.
Callosamia promethea mate during daytime appox. from 01:00PM to 05:00PM the females releases pheromores to attract the males. Callosamia angulifera mate at night with the females starting to release pheromores at appox. 10:00PM. If a female promethea moth gets confused and releases pheromores at night after 10:00PM, male angulifera moths will be attracted. This happened for me once.

 
Promethea Silkmoth
Janice J. Stiefel--Hi, Richard, Good to hear from you. It's interesting that you have observed Prometheas flying during the day. We NEVER have...only that one time when the males came from everywhere in anticipation of finding the female that had been released the night before. I don't think the males ever found her, because they were still looking at 4:00 PM, then they appeared to disband. Who knows, maybe they found her unbeknownst to us. I will put your comments into my data base, with your name and date. Thanks for sharing your experience.

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