Hyalophora cecropia
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Hyalophora cecropia courtesy Mark San Fillipo,
On September 5-6, 2004, Mark wrote,
"I went outside on my deck to start enjoying the afternoon
and looked down on my deck to see this."
"We have never seen one of these before, having lived here for
over ten years. After having seen this behemoth and taking its
picture, I asked my wife if I should go online to see if this is a
caterpillar that we should end the life of."
He started spinning his cocoon around 4 pm yesterday.
We started seeing little strands of silk as he was hunting for a
place to hibernate. His cocoon was fully
formed less than 24 hours after he started."
Cecropia and other Attacinae spin a tighter inner
cocoon after fashinioning a considerably larger outer cocoon.
This one still has a way to go. The silk will darken and become
relatively stiff in the outer cocoon. Both cocoons will have an
escape valve so the moth can emerge with relative ease in May,
June or even early July.
"What a splendid looking moth this will end up being." Mark and his wife
Robin wil be keping an eye on it til spring.
Hyalophora cecropia female,
courtesy of Jeff Ausmus
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