Cecropia Moth Eclosure, Time-lapse

This is a Cecropia moth pupa, which I took out of its cocoon, not knowing what it was when I found it. I waited over a month for the moth to emerge. I left the camera running for days at a time and took thousands of pictures to get this sequence. The pics were taken every 6-20 seconds during this period and played back at 12 frames per second. I was unhappy to see that her wings were a little deformed and that she would probably be unable to fly but I released her in the woods near my house so she might have a chance at mating.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Cecropia
• moth
• Hyalophora
• cecropia
• time
• lapse
• emerge
• eclose
• pupa
• cocoon

[KenScottPhotography]

awesome collection of timelapse work!

[webiocosm]

@KenScottPhotography - Thanks alot. I took a look at some of your collection, it is really impressive.

[travisbice420]

i have a question. did you have this moth before it went in to its cacoon? if so how long does it take for it to transform in the cacoon and come out. i was looking at somebody elses video and they said that it was in there refridgerater for a while and they brought it out adn then it hatched.. so do you know if they have to be in the cold or somthing like that? i found one in the woods a day ago and put it in a jar and it has already in a cacoon.

[webiocosm]

@travisbice420 - No, I found the cacoon in the spring and took it home and ended up having to watch and wait over a month. It was excruciating. They spend the winter in the cacoon so keeping the cacoon in the refrigerator helps simulate natural conditions.

[jcmegabyte]

Nice shot! It's always challenging to have the camera ready when they emerge. The pupal shell getting stuck to the wing (and causing deformity) is pretty common with pupae that have been removed from the cocoon. I usually anchor the pupa to a larger twig or something using a slight bit of elmer's glue on the tail end, or lightly wrap it in napkin so that the head end is not blocked and the moth can crawl completely free of the shell before it climbs and expands its wings. :-)

[webiocosm]

@jcmegabyte Hey thanks alot for the advice. I have been wanting to do one of these since first seeing some of your great vids. I was lucky to come across these pupa without ever having seen them before or knowing what they were, and probably even more lucky to check in on it just as it started emerging.

[kannaboom24]

@JohnnyJohnW it is real life.

[JohnnyJohnW]

It's like real-life stop motion

[crackattack85]

I just found one of these cocoons outside my house, I took the pupa out and it wiggles..Do I need to keep it in any certain light or temperature to get it to come out?

[ChisstTheCookie]

I was eating marshmallows while watching this... Felt like i was eating that moth :P

[aufmschlauch]

wow... nice

maybe with a white background and

a little bit more light it would look perfect..

[benjamin656564]

that moth's huge