Tuesday, 15 July 2014

Mystery moth eggs

Our mystery moth eggs have hatched! We set up the moth trap just over a week ago and caught all sorts of things, including two Elephant Hawk Moths. We put them in a cage, along with a Buff Tip (because they're quite big and interesting) and a stray Heart and Dart (small brown moth) that ended up in there with them. Overnight they laid two lots of eggs, which we were really hoping were Elephant Hawk Moth eggs. Well they've all hatched and unfortunately none of them are Hawk Moths.

The first ones were laid individually on Fuchsia. They've hatched and are really tiny. It's actually quite hard to see them without a magnifying glass. I think they must be Heart and Dart moths. They seem more active at night and spend the day curled up in a tiny ball.

The second lot of eggs hatched this morning. They were bigger, laid in a clump on the side of the cage and were white with a black dot. They all hatched at the same time and I think they are probably Buff Tips. I've given them Silver Birch, Lilac and Rose and we'll just have to see what they fancy. Apparently they will stay as a gang until they get bigger, when they go off on their own. I'm sure Bug Mad Girl will want to keep them, as long as we can find them something they eat.


In the photo you can see the empty egg cases of the caterpillars that have hatched. There are still a few eggs to hatch, but you can clearly see the black dot of their faces inside the egg.

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