u/Fact_Unlikely

I keep seeing posts with some not so good lighting of Carmen talking about the paint job. So I wanted to share some photos in better lighting so you can really see the detail. She’s not my favorite model but the lighting really changes how she looks. I do agree the dapples could be a little more defined. But I think her face does have pretty good shading.

If anyone wanted to see my breeding cages. This works for multiple large species of moths. You don’t want them to inbreed with the others that you hatch. So I make these cages. Hardware cloth 1/2 inch. I like the pvc coated ones they aren’t as sharp. Just cut it and make a circle. Some zip ties. And then I don’t even attach the top and bottom, just put something heavy on top that won’t wobble. The top and bottom are plastic plant dishes.

Luna moths exist just to mate and lay eggs. They live 10 days at most and die of starvation because they don’t have mouths. Females rarely move from where they hatch. So you put the female in the breeding cage, and then she calls a wild male. They breed through the holes and stay locked for 24 hours. The male flies away to find more females. The female can safely lay her eggs with me and I will hatch and care for them. Only 1/100 caterpillars survive in the wild, so it’s nice to up those chances by a lot. And they are so cute. The female will usually lay two clutches of eggs a day or two apart. So you can release her onto a host plant and she’ll lay more in the wild too. 🍃🐛💚💛

Releasing the males. Keeping females and using them to attract wild males. Already got a HUGE wild male that I’ll be mating with my females. He’s gonna have a great time LOL.
I like how only a few out of the about 50 hatch a day. So each day is a surprise! One of my females that was locked with a male for a nice 24 hours already laid her two egg clutches. I love these guys.

I added some photos at the end of a deformed one that never could inflate his wings. The culprit seemed to be an already cracked open pupae shell. But he lived about a week with no issues, climbed around great. I spent extra time with him, not that he cared lol.