Cecropia Moth Project, Days 1 and 2

Cecropia caterpillar, 1/4"

Once the eggs hatched we found fifteen 1st instar caterpillars, and we were eager to get food to feed them. Normally, the eggs are laid on the host plant and the caterpillars feed on that. We read that the host plant for Cecropia moths is the wild cherry tree, but we could not locate any in our area. The caterpillars will also feed on ash, birch, box elder, alder, elm, maple, poplar, plum, willow, apple, and lilac leaves.

Initially we could not find any of these trees. It could be because most of these trees are deciduous, and do not have any leaves this time of year. We tried feeding the caterpillars a number of other leaves including eucalyptus, asian pear, blueberry plant, blackberry plant, lemon tree, hawthorne, and countless others that we weren't able to identify. With each new leaf that was added to the container the babies became active and began to explore, but they quickly lost interest. The first bites we saw were on the eucalyptus leaf, but it seemed they were sampling rather than actually feeding. In all cases they abandoned the new leaves and returned to climbing up the sides of the container, eventually congregating at the top.

Almost 48 hours after the hatch, the caterpillars still hadn't eaten. We became nervous thinking that we might not find any suitable food. We drove around and finally located a maple (one of the trees listed as part of their diet). We attached the leaves near the top of the container, hoping that since they head to the top anyway they might incidentally land on the leaves. We also added a moistened paper towel to the bottom of the container, as we read that they will not feed if their environment is too cold or too dry.

When we woke up this morning we found that the caterpillars had eaten the maple. There is also a noticeable amount of frass (caterpillar feces) on the bottom of the container. Very exciting. Today we will try to find a larger container and collect more maple leaves.