Albany, California Updates (8/30/17-9/2/17): Maduca sexta More Eclosions, Pairing, and Eggs

After a few more of our Carolina sphinx moths (Manduca sexta) eclosed back in Albany, California, our mother successfully created a pairing. Stock originated as eggs, June 2017.

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Our Manduca's back at home started emerging a few days ago on August 29; our mother has been keeping us updated ever since. She reported that three more emerged the following morning on the 30th. Although she pinned the first one, she set the other three outside in the cage picture above outside at our request. We figured that if these are like other sphinx, a natural pairing in a large outdoor flight cage would probably be the best way to go. The next day, she put in more newly emerged moths into the cage, but there were no pairings. It not until the second night on August 31 that a pairing was finally obtained which is shown in the picture above. Based on our conversation, I don't think that she even fed the moths at any point so far, but that should be fine for the first few days and it certainly didn't stop them from pairing!

When our mother checked on the pairing on the morning (probably somewhere between 8-9 AM) after it occurred, the participants had already broken up.  She couldn't tell which female was the one that had paired, so she took them all inside into a container with a branch of tomato. According to her, about 20-30 eggs were laid that night (September 1), scattered haphazardly and not all on the plant, although we are not sure to what extent the plant is even necessary for these crazy things. Sometime later on the next day (September 2), she changed her estimate to 50 eggs, but we don't know whether she miscounted at first or the moth laid more eggs during the day. On a side note, the weather in Albany are hitting record highs this week in the 90's and 100's ° F; we don't know if this could have had any influence on the breeding process.

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Authors
Brian Liang

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