silkie moths doing the mating dance.

oh ya they doing the mating dance baby... finally i got a male moth.... my 2nd ever.... 1st healthy one ever... and just dropped him in witht he femalle and he flapped his wings like crazy right next to her for a second then backed into her lol.... whole thing took 2 seconds....

can i post pictures of it on here?

 

i don't see why not! i think it's interesting!

 

k how do i post the pic directly to this page... cuz i dont have it posted anywhere online...

 

I just got a picture of my first two moths hooking up. I was shocked, because I checked today and was so excited to see that two had come out of their cocoons. Before I even had time to see if I could tell the difference between male and female they'd already gone to it. I'll post the picture here once I upload it to photobucket.

Can you upload directly to this site? I haven't noticed the option (then again I haven't been looking).

 

No they have to be hosted someone where first and then you paste the URL in IMG tags.

If you want, email the photos to me cheri@reptilerooms.com and I can host them and upload them for you if you do not have a hosting acct.

Some online are free, but they usually have loads of pop ups and sell the emails that own them so you get spammed to death. The ones on this site have a small fee to cover the bandwidth used, we do not sell Emails and never have popups... augh I hate those!

 

hey how long do the moths have to mate? my pairs been at it for three days and i want them to hurry up and be done so i can use the male on a different female.... i hear they can go a couple of rounds before dying... but this one wont let go of the female.... is there sumway i can separate them? like pulling them apart i tried softly but they are determined lil buggars.... what kind of effects can be caused if they are yanked apart too soon? darn cocoons aer all hatching too slowly... taking like 2 - 2.5 weeks to hatch because i keep my house at about 67 degress

 

crazy fool1, i would assume pulling them apart would have the same results as if you were to pull the moths heads off. you are talking about forcefully removing two mated insects which could intern do some permenant organ damage. this therefore could ruin any attempts at baby silkworm eggs.

i would just leave them be and let nature do it's thing... it is better to have one fertilized female then none due to his handling them.

 

yes but im always a bit impatient and was just wondering if they could be friendly cohersed to separate on their own or just with a lil help... if i was just gonna tear em apart i wouldn't have entered that info into the topic lol
But i guess ill just have to wait and see if no one has any ideas...

 

i would just put all the moths together the males will automatically go to the next female.

i use imageshack.com to host, free and limited popups and no spam.

 

Crazy are you sure they are still alive?

The one photo you sent me of them mating, she had already laid her eggs, that is what all those little yellow things are and once they lay/mate, they die within a a few days.

 

no those eggs were from a different female that never mated... they were in together til they hooked up then i moved the couple into their own wedding suite lol they were locked for 3 and a half days before separating and then she laid like 15 eggs while i was out then when i got home they were hooked up again... this time i gently urged them to separate a bit and they came apart much much easier than when i was trying b4... then threw int he male with a different female who has laid most of her eggs already btu i have no fresh females out for him to mate with... the first female is now shooting out all ehr fertile eggs like there's no tomorrow... cause for here, there probably isn't. i just figured 4 days is long for them to mate cuz i heard it only took like 1 or 2 days... could it have anythign to do witht the temps in my house or the humidity
??? cuz i cranked the heat to like 71 and its been a steamhouse in here to try and help...

 

they like temps in the 80's and air flow

 

80's? wow thats hot... well i have a spare ten gallon tank i guess i can set up into an incubator... just need to find me a thermostat i guess... they didnt have much airflow... wouldnt the air just dry them up inside?

 

Does the air dry you up inside?

All I can tell you is that they breed best on our Lanai when the temps are in the 80's. Thats when we get the most fertile eggs, much cooler and we do not get many at all, much hotter and they die off without breeding

 

hmmm ok i will try that... i thought u meant airflow for the cocoons... cuz i havwe cut open the ones that did not hatch from my last batch and yes they were all dried up... but i will try to get them into a tank then that i can incubate to 80 degrees and hopefully see a big difference...

 

yay my eggs all changed color... but all to dark orange... i hop e after i get back from work they are purply so i can put em in the fridge....

 

FYI, after you're sure they're done changing color you may want to wait an extra day then put them into the fridge just to be sure. Good luck!!

 

thanks i will how many days will they be purple b4 they hatch?

 

Well here's a pic of what my eggs looked like ten minutes ago... (hopefully this works)


Do they look almost ready yet?

 

Heres the more zoomed in version that i shoulda used instead...

They must be close...