Actias Dubernardi-5 months in pupa

Hi,

waiting......???

my cocoons have been lying there since december

Best regards Michael

Hardly a surprise to many of us that have raised this species, they hatch at sporadic intervals when I've

raised them, a number will hatch more or less at the same time, and the rest sit and wait for what ever

they're waiting for.

When I've had exotics that seem to refuse to hatch, I'll try wet and dry periods, but that can take months.

I've been sent pictures of the habitat by another breeder, and it's semi-tropical mountain terrain, I guess

Their emergence is some evolutionary strategy, or that as breeders in our respective locales, we're missing

something.

Just wait and see. Move the abdomen to make sure it’s alive. With Saturniids, you never really know. I have had pieris brassicae since November (non diapause) and they still haven’t hatched.

Ok, just wait

What I've found is the one predictable thing about insects, and things in general, is that they

are unpredictable.

Many Saturniidae will overwinter twice, I've had several species do so, just yesterday I had a lone

Hyalophora gloveri hatch from a 2019/2020 batch, it remained in the cocoon, while the others I'd

had hatched last spring. Saturnia pyri- same thing.

Argema mimosa, I had one of those stay in a cocoon over 18 months, the larger share of the batch

hatching a few weeks after receiving them. I'm probably forgetting some others-

Some individuals are different, explanations are difficult, when all conditions are identical, and some decide

to stay in the cocoon.

Well, I mentioned it earlier, but dubernardi does this exact thing. I recently reared 21 larva, and they all spun up,

I kept track of the date I put each larva into 2 separate containers for spinning.

11 larva began spinning on dates from March 9th, to the 11th, the remaining ten, I had to use a separate

container for, and they spun on dates from March 11th, to the 15th.

The first moth from container 1 hatched on April 10th, with the next hatchings on the 11th,13th,14th(2) and the 18th.

From container 2, only 1 moth has hatched on April 14th.

So, in all, 7 moths have hatched from 2 containers with varying dates of them beginning spinning cocoons,

14 remain.

To make things even more fun, the 7 that have hatched, are all males.

This species is mind numbing. Only numbers and or luck allow the continuing breeding of this species,

the seller I bought the ova from, related similar experience, with only 15% of his moths hatching together,

and the remaining 85% still in cocoons, I don't know the amount of cocoons the seller is working with,

but it's probably more than 21.

When I had all my cocoons all nicely spun in the moss I provided them, I had a choice, sell some of them and let

what comes happen, and risk not having a mating pair, or sell none and have the best chance for breeding.

It's something to consider when buying livestock of this species, and some of the other exotic species, you need

luck and or numbers. The same seller indicated that out of 30 Argema mittrei cocoons he was only able to get a mating

from the last pair.

Nobody is going to prevent you from buying 4, or 6 cocoons of a species, but divulging the probability of

breeding with a small number is something different, and it takes record keeping to get figures on that

probability. I've learned this over time, and sometimes often only end up with specimens, not breeding

material, it's something I think about before buying exotic material. The frustrating thing, is having hatchings,

and not knowing if that moth is going to die a virgin, or have a chance at mating, I've got 6 tattered and dead

male Actias dubernardi now, which, while nice to look at for a few days, are worthless.