SPRING and SUMMER EGGS and LARVAE Order now for supply in season
Robin Moth Hyalophora cecropia North America
This is a magnificent species with most decorative larvae that are easy to rear, especially when sleeved. The moth will sit on your finger fanning its wings, like a pet! Highly recommended.
Cecropia is famous and has now become very difficult to obtain.
A magnificent and very large moth, coloured with scarlet and charcoal. The larvae are most attractive and easily reared with careful hygiene. They do well sleeved outside in good weather. Osier Willow is the plant that succeeds best for us, and many breeders use Cherry.
Reported foodplants: Lilac, Cherry, Pear, Apple, Plum, Alder, Birch, Dogwood, Willows especially Osier Salix viminalis, Elm, Beech, Gooseberry, Poplar.
Cherry Moth Callosamia promethea North America
The male and female moths are so different that they might be taken for two different species. The male is mainly black, with very shapely wings. The ground colour of the female is wine red.
Promethea flies and breeds by day: the males like sunshine but must not be left out to bake. Pairing is often easy, and sometimes difficult!
The larvae are gregarious until quite large, when they take on a very unusual appearance, being white, with knobbles like sealing wax in bright reds, yellows and oranges.
Foodplants include Lilac and Cherry, Privet, Ash, Apple, Pear, Oak, Rhododendron, Willow, Lime, Tulip Tree Liriodendron, Peach, possibly Maple, Poplar and even Pine will also be taken.
Indian Moon Moth Actias selene
This fine species has now become almost impossible to obtain! At last there are eggs again!
One of the most recommended for beginners and everyone's favourite. Huge, green, tailed moths. Enormous larvae with colourful tufts and tubercles. Changing from red, in early instars, to green. Young selene larvae are red and black, changing pattern with each skin change, until they become bright green with colourful tubercles. They become enormous, one of the largest larvae in the world!
Selene larvae appear to like Hawthorn over other foodplants , but they can also be reared on Apple, Osier Willow Salix viminalis, Plum, Blackthorn, Lime, Poplar and Sumac Rhus typhina. For later generations, when deciduous foodplants drop their leaves, selene larvae also thrive on Escallonia, Evergreen Oak and Rhododendron leaves and Portuguese Laurel Prunus lusitanica.
Keep in plastic boxes, changing the liner and food daily, until the larvae are large enough to be caged on cut foodplant. Selene larvae also do well sleeved outside in summer. Cocoons produce adult moths again in the same year, but the autumn generation pass the winter as a cocoon and emerge in spring.
Indian Moon Moth Actias selene
This fine species has now become almost impossible to obtain! At last there are eggs again!
One of the most recommended for beginners and everyone's favourite. Huge, green, tailed moths. Enormous larvae with colourful tufts and tubercles. Changing from red, in early instars, to green. Young selene larvae are red and black, changing pattern with each skin change, until they become bright green with colourful tubercles. They become enormous, one of the largest larvae in the world!
Selene larvae appear to like Hawthorn over other foodplants , but they can also be reared on Apple, Osier Willow Salix viminalis, Plum, Blackthorn, Lime, Poplar and Sumac Rhus typhina. For later generations, when deciduous foodplants drop their leaves, selene larvae also thrive on Escallonia, Evergreen Oak and Rhododendron leaves and Portuguese Laurel Prunus lusitanica.
Keep in plastic boxes, changing the liner and food daily, until the larvae are large enough to be caged on cut foodplant. Selene larvae also do well sleeved outside in summer. Cocoons produce adult moths again in the same year, but the autumn generation pass the winter as a cocoon and emerge in spring.
Calleta Silkmoth Eupackardia calleta Mexico and southern USA
Very seldom offered, the larvae are very attractively coloured with spots of red, blue, and black on green/grey. Foodplants are Ash and Privet. Easy to rear.
The moth is strikingly patterned in black with contrasting markings in scarlet and white.
Brahmaea wallichii Asia
It is most difficult to get this very large and magnificent Brahmaea species. In August we will have eggs. The larvae feed on Privet. Young larvae are adorned with long, black, curled spines, which are shed at the final larval skin change. These are magnificent creatures, most impressive to see and easy to rear. Pupae are formed in compost. The larvae like to pupate under a flat stone. Store the pupae for spring emergence.
15 eggs Brahmaea wallichii £12.95
Brahmaea hearseyi China
EXTREMELY SCARCE, and MOST SPECTACULAR in all stages.
Supplies will be limited. Please book early.
Only once before listed by WWB. This species is quite similar to Br. wallichii but is a distinct species with very exotic horned larvae that develop fast in summer.
The large larvae are particularly striking in their bold and contrasting patterning and colours. They thrive on Privet Ligustrum ovalifolium.
When the larvae are ready to pupate, they assume an orange/brown colour and they race around in search of flat stones or logs under which to pupate. Provide a slate, or tile resting on compost, and they will settle beneath this, ready to pupate.
There may be a further generation, but most pupae become dormant and can be stored cold until the following summer.
Squeaking Silkmoth Rhodinia fugax Far East 15 eggs
We are sure that Rhodinia fugax will bring a lot of pleasure to breeders, and happy memories to those who have reared the Squeaking Silkmoth before.
Large larvae squeak when touched or disturbed by noise. Even the pupa squeaks within the extraordinary cocoon, which is green and shaped like a pitcher plant, with an open top. The vessel would fill with water when it rains, but the caterpillar spins a drainage hole in the bottom!
Foodplants include Oak, Sycamore, Maples, Willows and Sallows, Osier, Beech, Hawthorn, and doubtless many other trees and shrubs. Younger larvae change colour at each skin change. Final instar larvae have a clearly defined lateral demarkation between a dark green underside and bright lime green topside, which breaks the recogniseable shape of the caterpillar and helps it to avoid detection by predators.
Moths emerge in autumn. Males are beautifully patterned in chestnut brown. Females are much larger, and patterned in yellow. Eggs laid in autumn remain unhatched until buds open in the spring. Store in a fridge or very cold place, slightly humid, but beware of mould. Don't keep them chilled longer than necessary. You should incubate the eggs as early as food is available in spring. March and April are the best months to incubate.