So lovely to look after my lady, but she's not wriggling much at the moment. It seems she's either dying or emerging, I'm not sure which, but she has got very lethargic. I have been misting lightly twice a day and fretting over her; whispering words of mothish encouragement.
If anyone knows any poems or lullabies in Mothac, please advise.
I have my fingers crossed for her! Ive been away for a week and expected there to be some beautiful moth pictures on this thread when I got back. She may still emerge very soon, some do seem to become less active and only wriggle when provoked. It's probably because they're saving energy for their grand emergence, I imagine it's quite tiring for them. I don't have any moth melodies I'm afraid, lol, I don't think they'd appreciate my dulcet tones, they'd likely never want to emerge at all, haha. I have been known to talk to them though, especially the deaths head hawk moths as I have to hand feed them (silkmoths don't eat as adults though as they don't have fully developed mouths. Just another educational fact, lol) Good luck with her.
She has been reborn! It worked! Her wings look beautiful and she has crawled up the wicker basket, very pale. I will take pics tomorrow. How gorgeous. Thanks for all your advice Karen. x
At the moment she is wearing a Liberace cloak. All white with a little grey streaks, very fluffy, much like the below. I don't know if moths change colour after the have been born.
On a cursory look online, it seems like she might be something like a buff ermine.
Oh dear. I was going to put her out at dusk, as moths emerge in their new form at dusk. But on getting home, I found she had crept out from the wicker basket. She will be somewhere in the house. I hope I spot her or she comes out to fly about.
These are the pics I took this morning. The wicker basket was in the garden, so it has bits of earth still attached - nothing to do with the moth.
The discarded husk
In the morning moths flew in to the loft window (two floors up) and fluttered all around the basket.
And, yes, I need to wash my windows. I do hope she does turn up. It's so much effort and magic to spend, for your only week of life to be lost under a sofa.
[I note that I don't feel remotely about splatted clothes moths. #speciesism].
The antennae on them both, though! I don't know about moths and was surprised to see two such different looking moths in courtship rituals. I don't know if any mating went on. She looked distinctly not up for anything, recovering, resting, plotting in her quiet corner. "Please go and both someone less beautiful. I have a headache."
Hooray! She's beautiful Fire. If she didn't mate she will continue to send out pheromones and males will still come to look for her but if she did she will start to lay eggs in a couple of days. You could find her at night by shining a light through a white cloth or sheet, she will land on the sheet as she'll be attracted to the light. If she's ready she may even lay eggs on the sheet (some moths aren't fussy where they lay them!) If that happens you can gently pick them off or place the sheet onto some privet. The eggs will be glued on but easily scraped off with a finger nail, (be gentle but they are tougher than you might think) if you choose to do that you could either place them near the privet in a small tub (out of direct sunlight) and they'll find their own way to the leaves or you could place them in a tupperware tub with a lid on (no air holes but open to let air in at least once a day and just breathe on the inside of the lid before putting back on for humidity) DON'T put leaves in at this stage, wait until they hatch as the gasses that the leaves give off can kill the eggs. They will probably only take about 5 days to hatch and then you can put some sprigs of privet in but they would be better on a plant outside as caterpillars need cleaning out every day as they are prone to infections and are quite high maintenance. If you do want to raise them yourself (if you find yourself in possession of some eggs) I'll advise you further. Don't worry if you don't find her, she'll likely have found her own way out of the window.
Posts
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...