The Silence of the Lambs part ll......

This post begins with good news and bad news.

The good news is that one of my Death's-head Hawkmoths has unexpectedly emerged. The bad news is that  one of my Death's-head Hawkmoths has unexpectedly emerged.

If you find that confusing, then let me further befog the issue by adding that even since I typed those words, a second has now also emerged.

Why am I saying that the good news is also the bad news? Well because I only had four pupae and these two have now emerged and seem to be both female? Certainly the same sex anyhow. That means no chance of mating and egg laying. Furthermore, I now have just two chances left for a pairing and those have to be one of each! (Unless I know less than I thought about mother nature?) I am fairly sure that it is too late for the last two to emerge as moths this year now (yes, I know I said that once before) and so I will have to cross everything and wait the winter out.

And a closer look at that fantastic mask-the markings on the two moths are very similar to each other...

Knowing that these moths feed on honey directly from the hive I knew it might be challenging to get them to feed in an unnatural environment. I had read and seen videos of how you need to encourage at least the first feed, by gently unfurling the proboscis and placing it in the honey.

I tried everything I knew for days on end to encourage feeding with no luck. I then e.mailed a friend who'd raised some already and asked for advice/tips, but she informed me that she'd had no luck with all five of hers and never did get them to feed. I tried different mixtures ranging from neat honey to honey and water and even sugar water but it was all refused. Then on the seventh day after emerging, I finally persuaded the first moth to have a feed by soaking some cotton buds in honey...

Please remember that you will need to view the blog online to see these videos-they do not show in the e.mailed version

                     

     

These really are beautiful and impressive moths with quite powerful, large wings. In this little clip I allow the wing to beat against my finger to show the sound it makes. It then decides on a maiden flight around my studio. You can hear it squeaking and bumping into the light and is way faster than I can follow with the camera, before settling once again. I apologise for my rather hairy hand here too-I am not a particularly hairy person but for some reason my right hand seems so in this clip! Must have drunk too much potion last night?

                 

       

You can hear the squeaking noises they make better in this clip where I am encouraging it by gently moving the moth. It also displays the defensive posture of raising itself up. They achieve the noise by expelling air from their proboscis (the part that looks like a long nose), past a flap near the opening called the epipharynx.They make the sound when startled, but also do quite a lot of squeaking when conducting their honey raids.

      

          

And so all things being equal, that is where this update should have ended. Sans to say perhaps that I have learnt so much from being able to observe  these monster moths. I should also mention I suppose  that they are now in a roomy flight cage and are fed and warm.

But...time has been tight of late and this update has taken a while to compile. Today October 5th turned into a very warm day for the time of year and I guess the remaining two pupae thought it must be spring and low and behold, they too have now emerged within a few hours of each other!

Emerging Death's-head Hawkmoth

Emerging Death's-head Hawkmoth

This one was last to emerge-this was about 15 mins later

I think the first photos show a male emerging? That's what I hope anyhow, with the final one being yet another female. I am not too sure about the last one as you can see the wings have yet to inflate fully (this can take about an hour) and the antenna are still folded down making it tricky to tell if they are the larger ones sported by the males.

And so now I have two that have fed okay and two to yet persuade to do so. Hopefully it will get easier with each one.

Once they are fed and ready I shall put these into the flight cage with the others, plus some food-plant and hope for a pairing. 

Watch this space because there could be more to add to the story yet.

Until the next time...

           

Silence of the Lambs and Out of Africa?

At the end of my penultimate update  I posed a question about the identity of the eggs in my photographs. This latest update will deal with one of those photos; why just one? Well because, as I write, nothing has yet emerged from the eggs in the second photograph, that will have to wait a little longer.

This then is the story of the little cluster of pale eggs in the second photo, that looked like this:

I would be surprised if anyone has been able to guess the identity of these as they are in fact a migrant species and can also be found throughout tropical Africa. 

The death's head hawkmoth (Acherontia atropos) is one of the UK's largest moths. The life-cycle has 4 stages: Egg, larva, pupa and adult. The eggs are pictured above and the first instar larvae look like this...

As they increase in size, they become greener...

The caterpillars are not very active and seem to move only when they need to get to another leaf, having eaten the one they are on. In the 2nd instar stage, the horn begins to shorten and turn yellow.  The body and horn become covered in minute pale tubercles...

By the time of the 3rd instar, the 7 lateral stripes are fully developed and are blue edged with white. The tubercles are now enlarged. This is a typical pose for the early instars, along the vein, underneath a leaf. As they grow they become too large to do this and have to rest on a leaf stalk or branch.

Here's a short video of one feeding (the usual reminder about needing to view directly from my blog to see videos, the e.mailed version won't show)...

Instar 4 sees the yellow tone becoming more vivid and the horn recurves further...

The 5th instar is the final one before pupating-here's a freshly moulted one...

Now the tubercles are lost apart from the horn, which is strongly recurved. The blue edge of the lateral stripes becomes more extensive forming a series of broad, V'shaped bands along the back...

The final instar larvae are huge; I measured one at 100mm and it was still growing. They consume an enormous amount of the food-plant (in this case privet) at this stage as well.

When they are fully grown they darken a little and begin to cover themselves with a saliva-like secretion just prior to pupating. The next video shows this but I've increased the speed to keep the size reasonable for the blog...and your patience...

It then wanders away from the food-plant and pupates by burrowing into the soil...

The video above actually show the largest of the larvae I have, starting the pupating process. I originally had 15 eggs, from which only 4 larvae emerged. I'm not sure if this is normal but somebody else did tell me that they had 15 also and only had 5 larvae. Right from the start I have been amazed at how the growth rate has differed. These all emerged the same day and withing a fairly short space of time and yet.....well here's a photo that demonstrates the differences...

The larger of the two here appears to be two instars ahead of the smaller one. And so now I have three more yet to pupate and I am wondering if they will then over-winter before the moths emerge. My friend Su Reed who also had some of these said that hers emerged after around 4-5 weeks but I guess it may be getting too late in the year for mine. Either way, that will be quite an exciting time as the moths are huge and squeak!

It would be remiss of me when talking about these mystical moths to not mention that iconic film poster. As any film buff will gladly tell you (something I am not by the way) the poster shows Jodi Foster's face with a large moth placed over her mouth. That film being of course, 'Silence of the Lambs'. This is supposedly the 'Death's head' moth from the film...

But if you take a closer look at the ambiguous skull in the image, you'll find it has been manipulated and actually comprises seven, female naked bodies....

The image originated in a photographic portrait of the artist Salvador Dali and this photo itself was inspired by surrealist Dali's gouache 'Female bodies as a skull' painting.

The true 'skull' on the moth should look more like this...

That then is the story to date and I will be watching for any moths that might emerge later in the year, failing that, next spring. Whenever it is, there will be images here for sure.

That's about all for this update, I hope to have news of the other eggs sometimes very soon, until the next time...