Rothschildia not spinning?

[jennam]

My apologies if this is a riddiculous question, but it's good to have input from others.

We have some Rothchildia caterpillars now, and out of 7, 5 have spun... one is alot smaller, so he's a way off, and one is huge. They have been doing extremely well on Privet.

However... the large one, who has always been the biggest, even at the the point all the others spun, just eats an eats. I have never seen a Rothschildia caterpillar get this big. We were concerned that he wasnt spinning.

This evening he has excreted a massive amount of clear fluid. Whilst the others did a small amount just before spinning, this is something else!

Could this be simply because he is that much bigger? Or is it possible that this caterpillar isnt going to spin at all? Can the transformation process even happen outside of a cocoon?

After the Atlas moth caterpillar disaster (all died of virus as per my previous posts - have since been told they are extremely difficult to rear), ive been very careful with the Privet being clean and fresh and dry.

Has anyone ever come across a caterpillar that didnt spin??

I realise my two threads on this forum have been about issues... we do successfully rear many other caterpillars and moths, and will be sure to contribute photos and happier posts soon

[evra]

I don't know how much experience you have with rearing, but female larvae can get pretty big. There can also be quite a bit of variation in size by the time the last instar comes around. Keep in mind that they double in size about every 3 days, so if one egg hatched a couple of days later, one larva could be significantly smaller than the others.

Also, it is possible that they will pupate in leaf litter without spinning a cocoon, but it is very, very rare, and I think it's a sign that the larva is not well. Of maybe 300 Rothschildia cincta that I've reared, only 1 ever did that, and the pupa shriveled up and died. I'd say just be patient, if the larvae haven't pupated by 2-3 weeks after the other ones have, then there's something wrong and they probably won't make it.

[jennam]

Well he/she spun last night. Biggest cocoon for Rothschildia ive ever seen and my god, that was so much liquid before hand!

Really intrigued to see the size of the moth when it emerges!

Thanks for your reply.

[Fernando]

What species is it? I recently reared R. orizaba and the larvae got preeeetty big.

[jennam]

Rothschildia cincta.

All have spun now. That one was huge though... amazing.

[steve]

Please post photos when they emerge. Really looking forward to seeing them !

[mooks666]

Hiya 1st post after losing my other details lve had larvae do that as well l think some just give up if they cant find a suitable site. This year l had Actias gnoma larvae just wander and start to make cocoons them move to a different site. But it pupated well and produced a perfect male.
As for larger larvae yes the bigger ones are nearly always females l had only 5 Caligula jonasii larvae and the last remaining larvae got twice the size of the others and it produced a female and luck was on my side had a male out at the same time . And a successful pairing..