I raised these as caterpillars when I was a kid in Nebraska. Every year some larvae would appear on the pussywillow shrub in the backyard. I would pick one and keep it in a screened box, giving it fresh vegetation every day. It’s eating was so loud it was audible from several feet away! It was an amazing experience to nurture them til they made their cocoons, in which they would stay all winter, and then emerge in the spring. This was really one of the best experiences of my childhood.
Recently, it occurred to me that the pussywillow shrub was a nursery cultivar, not a native species, and my research showed they probably formerly ate a native willow that grows along creeks (or “cricks” as we called them) in the region. There was a crick not far away from my house, but the waterway had been dredged and straightened by the Corps of Engineers and the the flood plain riparian area had been filled in for “development,” all of which would have adversely affected the willows. But the Cecropia just switched to another plant in the same family. Nature is adaptive.
Adaptive does seem to be what they are. The specimen out was first filmed on very non-native box shrubs and thrive on a steady diet of those leaves as you say a great experience and a beautiful insect
We had Cecropia moths in our yard in my southern childhood I believe. Also occasionally pale green Luna moths which I remember as being pretty large too.
I raised these as caterpillars when I was a kid in Nebraska. Every year some larvae would appear on the pussywillow shrub in the backyard. I would pick one and keep it in a screened box, giving it fresh vegetation every day. It’s eating was so loud it was audible from several feet away! It was an amazing experience to nurture them til they made their cocoons, in which they would stay all winter, and then emerge in the spring. This was really one of the best experiences of my childhood.
Recently, it occurred to me that the pussywillow shrub was a nursery cultivar, not a native species, and my research showed they probably formerly ate a native willow that grows along creeks (or “cricks” as we called them) in the region. There was a crick not far away from my house, but the waterway had been dredged and straightened by the Corps of Engineers and the the flood plain riparian area had been filled in for “development,” all of which would have adversely affected the willows. But the Cecropia just switched to another plant in the same family. Nature is adaptive.
Adaptive does seem to be what they are. The specimen out was first filmed on very non-native box shrubs and thrive on a steady diet of those leaves as you say a great experience and a beautiful insect
What a beauty!
We had Cecropia moths in our yard in my southern childhood I believe. Also occasionally pale green Luna moths which I remember as being pretty large too.
That caterpillar is positively gaudy.
Wow!!
I just learned of these, thanks for all the photos and details.
Nature is amazing…so lucky are we that you captured this Richard! Un grand merci!