Hello,
I had a look at one of my H. cecropia pupa today and I noticed a white/brown band that looked like wings. Is this a good sign, does it mean that the moth might emerge soon?
I think that looks like a bad sign. There is something wrong there, moths hatch by pushing out the head and antennae area above the wings,
Hyalophora cecropia, as far as I know only breeds once a year, this moth should be overwintering, not hatching.
The band has nothing to do with a potential hatching. It is a pupation „failure“ but not a serious one: wings did not expand completely after pupal shedding. It will have no influence on the development in this case. More serious cases where wings expand even less will lead to death of the pupa.
By the way: I also had cecropia eclipsing in late autumn at room temperature, although this might have been an exception.
That makes sense, thank you both 
I guess there's nothing I can do apart from wait and see what's gonna happen to the pupa.
I probably should have mentioned this but I tried to overwinter this little guy over summer in the fridge as I'm moving countries and did not want to risk having my pupa thrown away at the airport. I checked up on it again today and it is extremely squishy especially around the wing area and doesn't really wiggle anymore. It seems like it might not be alive anymore? I'm not sure
I had two of H. cecropia that looked that way too, but they hatched perfectly shaped wings an were fertile too. They do not wiggle before hatching. Mine didn t wiggle for three!!! weeks, but than both hatched and were beautiful, so don`t worry as long as the Abdomen is movable and it feels cold all is good. Just wait and see:-)
That's incredibly reassuring, thank you!! Yes the abdomen is movable so it should be fine then it's been exactly 30 days since I took it out of the fridge and I'm thinking its time inside it might not have been enough. Seem like I might have to take the pupa to the airport and pray they don't notice it
Some pupa wiggle, others don't. As far as the length of time needed to break diapause, it probably varies with species,
I think more than a month in any event, I've been told 90 days, before, it sounds plausible, but I've never experimented
with it, it would be an interesting topic.
The airport- a hit and miss search scene. When I came back from Naples with a backpack full of food, Absinthe, and Cuban cigars,
while waiting in line at customs, here comes a guy with an "airport" dog... I'm thinking, ok, I've had it. The dog was a citrus
sniffing dog looking for wayward lemons and other citrus.
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