Hi, Lepidopterix
I agree with you. I also use sawdust for over nine years for pupation and storage, without any problems. Yes, it turns out that more than half of the pupae were with this brown liquid. Yes, there was a smell. I've encountered infected individuals among wild ones before, but not among home-grown ones and in such quantities. Some serious infection.
Thank you very much for your reply 👍🏻
Hi, Rudi. Thank you for your reply.
What you described I have already experienced breeding Marumba quercus. There was a female who became infected just before pupation, she had diarrhea. Nevertheless, she pupated and then hatched with incorrect wings.
In the case of Laothoe populi, everything is completely different. There was definitely no diarrhea, the caterpillars were large and healthy looking. This is very strange, because the caterpillars of Smerinthus ocellatus were raised on the same poplar and went through the process from caterpillar to imago without any problems.
I thought maybe the problem was that I kept them in the refrigerator for too long and then suddenly took them out in thirty-degree heat? 🤔
P.S.
An important update! I opened the remaining pupae, they are all empty with brown and green liquid inside. It turns out that you were right, is it an infection? is this a virus or what is it? Or maybe the sawdust in which I throw them for pupation is infected?
Hello!
I have bred this species many times, but I haven't encountered such a problem before.
For some reason the moths couldn't get out of the pupae on their own. And when I took them out of the pupae myself, they could no longer spread their wings, some were already dead. Only a few individuals hatched successfully. Very strange...
What happened to them?
Smerinthus ocellatus pupae were kept in the same conditions and all hatched successfully.
Hi Rudi,
Yes, I understand that, knowing that this is one of the largest and least studied families of insects. I thought maybe it was some kind of well-known species of wasps that parasitizes exclusively on hawk moths. Well then, next time I'll give it a chance to hatch.
Cheers,
Ilya
Thank you Markus and Rudi for your explanation! I hope someone will tell exactly what kind of parasitic wasp it was or similar to this species. I don't like them, so unfortunately I got rid of it. Once I opened the pupa of the elephant hawk moth and a large imago of a parasitic wasp crawled out, from then on I don't like them. 
As in this case, this creature ate a very good and large female for which I had plans. 
Cheers,
Ilya
Hello,
This is what i found inside the pupa of the poplar hawk-moth. This thing is the size of a pupa itself. It looks like a big yellow maggot. What is this thing?
Thank you very much for the detailed answer!
Hello!
I don’t know why, but males of poplar hawk moth sometimes do not want to mate with females for some reason. And often moths hatch at different times, and they have to wait for a partner. So my question is how long can a female wait for a male to lay fertilized eggs? If she is already waiting for the male for the fourth or fifth day, does she still have chances to pair successfully or is it too late?
Danke für die Antwort. Ich stimme dir zu. Sie sind an den Orten verbreitet, an denen ich sie gefunden habe.
Guten Tag! Was sind das für Raupen? Sie lagen auf einem Spinnennetz im Gras. Vielleicht ist es ein Wollraupenspinner? Wolfsmilch-Ringelspinner? Heute auf dem Feld gefunden.
Saturn, thanks for the advice! But are you sure? Because I don't want them to get sick. I heard they need dry conditions.
Rudi, thanks for the advice!
ConnorH, thanks for reply! In the beginning i gave them Malus, Cherry plums, Ulmus, Tilia, Betula, Alnus, Acer, Raspberries and hazels... Now i left them only Pyrus communis and some Prunus spinosa. Only a few caterpillars began to feed but others still creep. Sure, they can access the food easily i also put them in three different boxes.
Hello! Please can you tell me why newborn Saturnia pyri caterpillars don't want to eat food? They hatched yesterday and still they don't eat. I gave them all i could find. They just creep. Strange behaviour. If they won't eat they will die soon. What to do?
