Hi Rudi,
It certainly wasn't my intention to question your experiences with matings in G. isabellae. I only wanted
to show that this is not a rule for every species. At least in one species of Saturniidae, a mating that is much
shorter than normal, may still be successful.
Regards, Klaas
Hi! In the G. isabellae breeding topic someone suggested that if two moths copulate for a shorter time than normal,
this will cause a smaller percentage of eggs getting fertilized. I can't fully agree with this any more. Two weeks ago
I got a mating from Saturnia pavonia which lasted for only a few (1-2) minutes: the two moths got disturbed and they
quickly separated. The female laid many eggs the next night, unlike I had expected almost all of them hatched!
Regards, Klaas
Thank you Chris (and Brunschi)! Almost all of my eggs hatched in 3 days time (from the 2nd to the 4th of May). They didn't
accept Salix caprea directly, so I gave them Quercus. My biggest caterpillar is in L2 now.
Regards, Klaas
Could it be Macroglossum stellatarum?
This morning my first caterpillar emerged, I expect the others will follow soon.
Chris, why are you feeding them with Salix and not on Quercus? I read on http://tpittaway.tripod.com/silk/p_cae.htm
that they will accept Salix, but are there more reasons to keep them on this alternative food plant?
Regards, Klaad
It's Pterostoma palpina.
Regards, Klaas
Saturnia/Eudia pavonia can be reared on many plants: Salix, Crataegus, Prunus, Malus, Rubus, Vaccinium etc.
It's better to do some research on a species, before you want to rear it. Good luck!
Regards, Klaas
Thanks for the information everyone! This night I successfully hand-paired a 3rd (my last) female and all
females laid eggs during the night. This morning I added some pine needles to the containers, the resting
females continued to lay eggs rapidly.
Regarding the duration of the mating: I don't think it's that important. Only very little sperm should be
enough to fertilize all eggs and fertilization doesn't take place during the mating but at the moment the egg is
being laid.
Regards, Klaas
Last year I tried to hand-pair G. isabellae but I was unsuccessful. This afternoon I tried hand-pairing again and I got 2 matings! These both lasted
for about one hour. Getting them into a copula took about 1 minute for the first pair, 10 minutes for the second pair. I kept the males in the fridge
below 5 degrees Celsius during the night and morning. Still cold from the fridge, they were less agile than normal and easier to handle.
I would like to thank everyone who sent me information! This afternoon my first hand-pairing worked,
only after 1 minute of trying!
Hi!
Has anyone ever hand-paired G. isabellae successfully? And will females only mate on the day that they have emerged,
or are they fertile for a longer time? Please contact me quickly if you can help me, my moths can't wait to produce some offspring! 
Regards,
Klaas
Thank you Luke!
Hoi Henri,
Even if the larvae accept these plants, I can't imagine that they will produce normal sized and healthy adults.
Groeten, Klaas
Hi!
Last autumn I obtained some eggs from P. caecigena and I'm wondering in how many days the
caterpillars will emerge after I take them out of the fridge?
Regards, Klaas
Hi everyone,
Some of my A. apollinus caterpillars have stopped feeding some days ago and since they've
been crawling around continuously. I gave them a 2cm layer of soil + pieces of cardboard but
they just won't start pupating. Any help appreciated!
Regards, Klaas
I don't totally agree with Rolf, I have seen males flying around at 11:00 am already. But normally females emerge
in the afternoon. And yes, if you are lucky you will find females in the afternoon hiding in the vegatation.
Only twice I found females this way, after I spotted males that were flying circles around a heather bush.
Regards, Klaas
Dear Roland,
I once put a 1 day old male and a fresh female together in a small cardboard box at around 20 degrees Celsius
under a very bright lamp. In only a few minutes the male found the female and they quickly started mating.
They were in copula for at least an hour, but unfortunately the eggs turned out not to be fertilized... this could be
because I didn't let the caterpillars overwinter (Treibzucht) which might have caused infertility in the adults.
Regards, Klaas
It's Phigalia pilosaria, congratulations!
Regards, Klaas
Dear Josephine,
I think the young caterpillars can't move to other buds from fresh twigs themselves, so you must try to find them
hiding between the small leafs in the buds. When the caterpillars are in L4-L5 (1-2,2 cm)they sometimes crawl
up to 20 cm away from the leafs that they eat, to hide, while hanging under a leaf. In this stage you can easily move
them to other twigs.
Regards, Klaas
Dear Josephine,
I reared the species last year, after I received some caterpillars from the UK in April that had already hatched during shipment.
I chose some Prunus domestica twigs of which the buds had just started to open and took them inside (watered). I used a needle to
put the caterpillars that were of course very small inside the opened buds. If I remember correctly, I transported the caterpillars
to a new twig once a week. When they were half-grown I also kept some on Prunus spinosa. It took about one month at room temperature
until the caterpillars were full-grown, pupation took at least a week and the pupal period took a month. I started with 6 young caterpillars and
I ended up with 6 perfect adults.
Regards, Klaas
