Hyalophora euryalus Eggs Arrive

Along with the Cecropia Moth (Hyalophora cecropia), we attempt to raise its west coast relative, the Ceanothus Silkmoth (Hyalophora euryalus), from eggs for the first time this summer as well.

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Today we had two dozen Ceanothus Silkmoth (Hyalophora euryalus) eggs arrive from a seller from Pennsylvania who must have originally obtained the brood from the west coast, the species' native range. H. euryalus is a very close relative to the Cecropia Moth (H. cecropia) that were will be raising simultaneously, and it is sometimes possible to hybridize the two but we don't intend on doing this. The two species are very similar in appearance in both larval and adult stages, and phenotypically the main difference between the two is probably the coloration, with the H. euryalus adult having redder wings and caterpillar having different colored tubercles and paler body coloration. It will be extremely interesting to raise these two similar species side by side and to see the differences between the two.

This is the first time we have ever attempted to raise this species before despite that it is apparently native in our region according to BAMONA. However, there are virtually no sightings of this moth in Alameda County for over 60 years on the site (although many nearby counties have a hefty amount of sighting each year) and we have never come across it despite living in Albany our entire lives. The reason we wanted to try H. euryalus despite already raising H. cecropia is because it is one of the few Saturniids that is endemic to the West Coast (the vast majority reside in Eastern side of the continent), and thus it is a very species for us- one that we've dreamed of rearing for years but have just never gotten around to doing so until now. 

The eggs arrived by envelope, stuffed inside with cotton in some sort of plastic case. They had already been removed off of whatever they were laid on and there was a total of 26- 1 more per dozen than we had purchased in order to compensate for a <100% hatch rate just like with the Cecropia eggs. Some first things we noticed when looking at the eggs is that they are more of a coffee brown color compared to the caramel brown of the Cecropia eggs, and eggs of both species are identical in size despite that H. cecropia is larger on average. The seller did not tell us which day they were oviposited, but we assume they were laid the night of the day that we contacted him which was on 6/6, and they will probably hatch within 9-14 days like the Cecropia eggs; today is day 4. 

- Alan

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