Cocoons & Seeds

[leptraps]

When I was teenager in Cleveland, Ohio I
Would walk the streets on the east side Cleveland hunting for cocoons in the many trees that lined the streets. Some of the H. cecropia cocoons that I would find in the large Silver Maple tree had bird seeds packed into the exit opening. I often wondered how it got stuffed in there. Possibly small birds hiding seeds for the winter, or maybe mice. I never got the answer.

Fifty five years later, I colltected two H. cecropia with several small seeds packed into the exit opening in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Have any of you ever collected or found a cocoon or cocoons with seeds packed into the exit opening?

Bill Oehlke, have you ever found seeds in cocoons. Have you known anyone who had?

[Adam Cotton]

Strange. Did you cut them open and see if there was a live pupa inside?

Adam.

[leptraps]

As a teenagers we removed the seed and I would also remove the pupa from the cocoon. When in High School, I did not remove the pupae.

I did not remove the seed this year. The moth pushed its way out without a problem.

I remember talking to some birders at the Holden Arboretum in Kirkland Hills, Ohio in the 1970's. They had never heard of such a thing.

Almost forty years later I encountered the seed packing in Cocoons again.

Georgetown, Kentucky is known as a community that feeds the wild birds during the winter. It was a very mild winter and we only had 38 species of birds at our feeders. 2015/2016 we had 52 species of birds at the feeders.

Speaking of feeding the birds. Last December while walking a fence line, I crossed fence lines. The field I crossed into had been planted in Sun Flowers. Although harvested, many a stalk still stood along with the seed head. I ask the owner if I could have some of the standing seed heads to feed to the birds in my yard. He took me to take all I wanted. I made the mistake of storing the seed heads in my storage shed. I never knew that we had thousands of field mice living in my community.

I also put several seed heads on a window shelf that we use for dried corn on the cob and sliced apples nailed to the feeder sides. I put a couple of sun flower seed heads in the feeder. Our two cats sit by the window day and night. Birds during the day, mice and raccoons at night. Drives the kittens nuts.

[ckswank]

I experienced the same thing growing up in central Illinois back in the 60s. It was always a single kernel of corn. I came to the same conclusion that it was a bird or squirrel that was hiding them there for safe keeping.