Emerging elephant hawk moth

[speckledjim]

Hey all,

I've been looking after a pair of these moths over winter and it looks like one of them is finally in the verge of emerging. One has turned distinctly pink and wriggling a bit more than usual. I have been checking on them (in the shed) every day now for the past week. This pinky change seems to have happened over night. When would it be best to release them?

Many thanks

[speckledjim]

Quick update -

[Wild-Woman]

I think a nice gentle release tonight would be good.

[speckledjim]

Thanks, just going to do it now, hope it can find food ok. I thought that it was a little early. Fingers crossed

[Anzu]

Lovely, best of luck to them

Do you have any tips on taking care of the chrysalis over winter? I had an elephant hawk moth caterpillar last year which pupated well, then under instruction from my dad I was told to leave him outside in some sheltered place. Was this good advice?

Unluckily my shelter was knocked down when all the snow fell and when I went out to check the pupa had been covered in snow, I got it out and re sheltered it but I think it may be dead. It's still outside in the garden now but it is a really dark brown colour and doesn't squirm any more.

[sunnydale]

Originally Posted by speckledjim

Thanks, just going to do it now, hope it can find food ok. I thought that it was a little early. Fingers crossed

So....how did it go Jim?

Tracey

[speckledjim]

It went good, I put it back almost exactly where I found the caterpillar. I was surprised at how emotional I felt, having looked after it for 7 months. It was a lovely experience. I was tempted to attempt feeding it with honey water, there aren't many of their food flowers around yet, but the release site is close to a garden center which has lots of flowering fuchsia's outside, so hopefuly it'll find it's way.

[bigdave60dog]

Before I had family I successfully bred Lepidoptera as one of my interests.
Elephant Hawks pupate in soil but will tend to dry out over the winter if left in soil indoors.
I found it best to leave them underground for a month or so to harden off.
I then put them in a seed tray with a plastic propagator top on. The floor of the tray having been previously lined with corrugated cardboard. I had several hundred pupa in these trays and weekly would spray them with a fine spray of water- water may be too chemicalised these days so be careful-. About every 6 weeks I would change the cardboard and discard any pupae that had dried out or were obviously dead in case they spread fungal infections.
I kept these away from insects or spiders in an unheated room.
When pupae began to change colour, I taped kitchen roll to the top so that it hung low enough for emerging moths to climb up to "dry out". I also increased the watering at this time as too little water will result in deformed moths.
I found this to be very successful method of keeping pupae with very few losses. One advantage is that the moth are safe whist "drying" another is that they cannot fly away till you want them to and you have the added interest of recording the inevitable parasites that emerge as well as positively identifying the hosts from which they emerge.
An exception to this method would be Private Hawks which need at least 9 inches of soil in which to pupate and probably need to lie deep down all winter for successful emerging. I always left these in their soil rather than disturb them.
Dave

[Ladywell]

Quote: An exception to this method would be Private Hawks which need at least 9 inches of soil in which to pupate and probably need to lie deep down all winter for successful emerging. I always left these in their soil rather than disturb them.

Guess they needed to be deep down in the soil 'cos they wanted to be Private!! Sorry - couldn't resist it!!

[Anzu]

Originally Posted by bigdave60dog

Before I had family I successfully bred Lepidoptera as one of my interests.
Elephant Hawks pupate in soil but will tend to dry out over the winter if left in soil indoors.
I found it best to leave them underground for a month or so to harden off.
I then put them in a seed tray with a plastic propagator top on. The floor of the tray having been previously lined with corrugated cardboard. I had several hundred pupa in these trays and weekly would spray them with a fine spray of water- water may be too chemicalised these days so be careful-. About every 6 weeks I would change the cardboard and discard any pupae that had dried out or were obviously dead in case they spread fungal infections.
I kept these away from insects or spiders in an unheated room.
When pupae began to change colour, I taped kitchen roll to the top so that it hung low enough for emerging moths to climb up to "dry out". I also increased the watering at this time as too little water will result in deformed moths.
I found this to be very successful method of keeping pupae with very few losses. One advantage is that the moth are safe whist "drying" another is that they cannot fly away till you want them to and you have the added interest of recording the inevitable parasites that emerge as well as positively identifying the hosts from which they emerge.
An exception to this method would be Private Hawks which need at least 9 inches of soil in which to pupate and probably need to lie deep down all winter for successful emerging. I always left these in their soil rather than disturb them.
Dave

Cool, Thank you for your tips!