Advice for Gastropacha quercifolia breeding?

Dear Schmetterlingen-enthusiasts,

Last week on holiday in de Drome region in southern France my 7yr old girl caught a nice Gastropacha quercifiolia specimen. I believed that after careful examination she had let the creature loose again. But...
while unpacking the car yesterday I found ´Leafy´ dead inside a plastic toy bucket with sieve lid, complete with some tissue paper and wooden sticks. I suppose she is my daughter after all

What was more... there were over 100 eggs spiraled around the thickest sticks. Today 30 of them hatched, to the great delight of my girl. She told her friends in school all about it.

Of course I would much like this breeding to be successfull. But to be honest, I am a bit anxious. I tried breeding G. quercifolia once. All I remember of it was little larvae constantly marching to the lightest spot in the container. Without any feeding. On any food (salix, sorbus, crataegus,...) Until dead. And that was that. Quite frustrating. Probably I did something quite wrong back then.

I would like to do better this time. Who can offer any helpful advice on rearing this species? Any hints that might boost my previous success rate are more than welcome!

Best regards,
Harmen

Thank you for your quick and sound advice, Christian!

I have put the larvae (over 100 hatchlings now already, and counting...) in a dark drawer in 5 plastic petri dishes (8cm diameter). I was glad to see a start of minuscule droppings this morning. It seems the larvae are willing to feed on the Salix I put in yesterday. Willow is so abundant here that we feed whole branches of the stuff to the rabbits every few days. I can feed an army on that. If they really tuck in this, food will not become much of a problem.

I read that wild G. quercifolia around this area (actually they are quite rare here...) winter as small larvae. Better hope our Frenchies will not pick up that habit in captivity as well, right?!

Best regards,
Harmen

Dear Schmetterlingen-enthusiasts,

An update on my ´Gastropacha project´. The larval stages went quite well, I got dozens of pupae.
And now they are starting to hatch by threes or fours every night. Small males appear fastest, but I have a few females as well and observed copulas.
Last night the first new eggs appeared.

Now I am at a loss. It is autumn now and in a few weeks time food will run out. What chances does my F1 have to survive this shortage? How should I proceed? I read that in nature this species winters as small larvae in this part of Europe. But how? In what conditions? Or should I tput the eggs on offer in the forums for hatching somewhere in southern Europe?

Anybody any experience with this or advice for me?

Best regards,
Harmen