I was completely amazed at the sheer size of this thing! Not only did it have a huge wing span but it was fat as a town rat! And although it fluttered like crazy and crawled all over the floor, the bed, the windowsill, the boy, me and anything else it could climb on, it never flew! I just chalked it up to still being new and not yet comfortable with it's moth status!
We hung the moth outside in the maple tree with it's enclosure open so it could leave at it's leisure. We wished it a fond farewell and good luck in finding a mate. Little did we know what we were getting into! The next morning I sent the Monkey Man out to retrieve the empty enclosure and was informed that the moth was still in it! At first I thought it was possibly dead and I immediately began to question if we had handled it too much and I was so worried! I emailed my friend Mr. Ohlke in Canada to find out what the hell. He told me if I had a female, she likely would not fly away but stay there and emit pheromones to attract a mate to her as she would probably be too fat to fly. Well, as I mentioned before, this thing was fat as a rat! He also stated if it were female, she would have thin antennae, which ours did. So, the Monkey Man named her "Polly" and so began "The Great Polyphemus Adventure of 2009"!
Here is the Monkey Man admiring his beautiful Miss Polly! We still couldn't get the Piggy to hold it, oh well, maybe next year!
So as it turns out, silkmoths have an approximate life span of 7-10 days in which time they find a mate, do their business and lay the eggs of the next generation. The clock was tickin'! I waited patiently for fellow co-op members to call with news of a male arrival. The first male was brought to me, his name was "Peter", I think, but he didn't fair well. I don't know if he heat stroked or had some reaction to the transportation but I believed him to be dead within the first 24 hours. So the search began again. Luckily another fine male specimen emerged and I transported him home successfully and "Wally" was introduced to our Polly. I was informed by my friends that it seemed as though I was running a house of ill-repute for lusty moths, or a mothel! HeeHee!
The male was going berserk at this time, I assume sensing the female.
Then I dumped him into her enclosure and I officially had a mothel! Wally is at the top, showing Polly what a handsome beast he is!
After 3 nights, I decided to let Wally free to pursue other options. I managed to get a great shot of him in all of his splendor before he flew off into the night! Is he not a most magnificent creature?!?
But alas, my poor girl was in sad shape by then, on her 6th or 7th day, she had been laying eggs all over the place and her wings were falling off and cracking, it was a sad sight to see. She would never be fit for the wild. So I kept her until she finally died on day 14 and I placed her under my germander bush. Now we wait and see if any of the eggs were fertilized, then I'll go from a moth bordello to a caterpillar nursery!
And on a side note... that first male that died, well, he surprised us all! I kept him as he was in perfect condition, wings outspread and beautiful and my intent was to lay him with Polly under the germander bush. But as it turned out, several days later my mom-in-law picked him up to show the Piggy and she laid him on his back and rubbed his feelers. At which time, he started to wiggle his abdomen and legs and freaked everybody out! Now he was never quite the same, he never flew and never moved much, so I just considered him my "special needs" moth and let him live his 7-10 day life in peace. And, yes, he was re-named "Lazurus" for obvious reasons by his original family! ;)
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