Rearing Citheronia regalis

[beetlehorn]

For several years now I have reared a number of different local Lepidoptera, and a few beetles as well. This year I had the fortune of getting some eggs from a female Citheronia regalis (Royal Walnut Moth). I currently have them sleeved on hickory and can see evidence of active feeding. From what I have gathered in terms of advice from my friends, is that they are easy to bring into the final instar. However, they just don't seem to make it through the pupation phase. Do they require a special form of substrate to pupate? Is it best to let them pupate outdoors? Any additional help would be greatly appreciated. Tom

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[oehlkew]

Hi Tom,
The information at
www3.islandtelecom.com/~oehlkew/dadregalis.htm
is from personal experience (and from experiences of those cited) with earth pupating Saturniidae
(Ceratocampinae subfamily), including regalis, imperialis, sinaloensis, rubicunda and virginiensis.
Same technique also works very well for most of the Sphingidae.

Bill Oehlke

[bigwhitmer]

For many years, I'd use new cheap topsoil from hardware stores (my own dirt and reusing past topsoil has had poor results) put in 5 gallon buckets. I'd put in 5 or 6 cats per bucket. I tended to overwinter most in the buckets but some I'd take out and overwinter in a fridge. Anyway, using the dirt in buckets method limited how many cats I could raise in a year. Plus, it is extra work to carefully remove the pupa from the dirt.

Two years ago, I tried Bill's suggestions about buckets in dark places. I put two layers of paper towels in with them. Worked great with regals and imperials.

Since things went so great the year before, I totally scrapped my dirt in bucket method. Unfortunately, last year the vast majority never pupated. They just laid in the bottom of the buckets until they died.

Figure this year I'll cover my butt and use both methods.

[oehlkew]

I suspect the larvae that did not make it in the buckets were sick, but it is a good idea to use different techniques, or more than one technique, until you personally have one that has been tried and proved true by yourself.

Bill Oehlke

[bigwhitmer]

Jun 27, 2011 1:51:51 GMT -8 oehlkew said:

I suspect the larvae that did not make it in the buckets were sick

They did not appear sick. They just sat there for a couple weeks and eventually died. It was like they were unhappy with the habitat and refused to pupate under those conditions.

The imperials came from one of your sources while the regals were from a different source. The imperials were raised in sleeves on Norway maple and white pine. Most of the regals were raised inside on sweetgum while 4 were out in sleeves on staghorn sumac and buttonbush. Some of the pupation buckets had both regals and imperials but others did not. They did not appear sick and they were raised separately, so I don't think they were sick but I cannot rule it out.

Wish I could provide a breakdown on who survived/died and what they ate but I normally don't keep those kind of records, especially when things appear to be going along fine. I do know the very last regal I had was sick but it died quickly.

[saturniidae1029]

I usually fill buckets, boxes, ziploc boxes, totes, etc. (really anything I have on hand) with coco fiber which is sold as a dehydrated block at pet stores. I then put the prepupal larvae in the containers with the coco fiber, the number of larvae and depth of coco fiber depends on the container. Larvae burrow in and almost always pupate perfectly (I've only had one larvae that had complications). Google Zoomed coco fiber, it's great stuff, lasts for years, retains moisture, does not get moldy, and is fairly cheap as a single block expands to A LOT of substrate.

This method has worked for numerous ceratocampines as well as with Sphingidae.