Callosamia promethea Pairing

We have obtained our first promethea moth (Callosamia promethea) pairing. This stock originated as cocoons from Massachusetts.

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Well, we thought it could've been a long shot before, but it looks like things worked out in the end. When we first received the promethea cocoons, we weren't extremely confident we would obtain eggs from them as there were only five of them. However, with the eclosion of the female yesterday and the three old males still alive, things started looking good - all we had to do was get them to pair.

Promethea typically pair during the late afternoon to evening which is when the female calls and the males are active, so we waited until 7 PM today, but unfortunately the male would not come to the female despite that she had been calling for hours. We could've continued waiting for another few days, but since Attacini moths are relatively easy to hand-pair, we thought, why not? So, while the female was still calling, we grabbed the male who opened its claspers immediately and it paired instantly when it made contact with the female's abdomen. However, the connection wasn't very firm the first time so they separated a few minutes later, but we just paired them up again in just a few seconds. For those also trying to hand pair prometheas or other Attacini, the key is in the angle that the moths' abdomens are brought together - it usually needs to be a sharp acute angle, probably around 30-60 degrees. Once they actually do pair up, they will usually rest at around a 90 degree angle.

Now that we have a pairing, we've almost guaranteed ourselves a hefty amount of eggs even if the final cocoon doesn't eclose or is male. We just hope we'll have enough plants to feed all the additional mouths we'll have to feed!

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Authors
Alan Liang

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