Family Saturniidae Hodges # 7764
Caterpillar foods: apple, ash, basswood, birch, cherry, lilac, maple, sassafras, spicebush, sweetgum, tulip-tree, buttonbush, magnolia, and other trees (Bugguide)
Prometheas spend the winter as cocoons, dangling from a branch of either their food tree, or a nearby tree or shrub.
3/15/2009 Cocoon in a small Wild Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) – probably the caterpillars’ food tree
I brought these back and put them in a cage, to join some other cocoons I had gotten from a friend (collected in Eau Claire County – about 30 miles from here.)
The cocoons started hatching in late May.
Males and females have different coloring and patterns on their wings.
6/23/10 Male
6/23/2010 Female
6/23/2010 A mated pair – the female was reared; she called in a wild male. Prometheas mate in the daytime – in the late afternoon. I’ve had some males show up as early as 4:00pm, and as late as 8:30.
This is a video of the mating “dance” they do. The males fly in, sometimes more than one, and flutter around the female for a while, flapping their wings and flying up and down, in and out. Finally one comes in closer and begins to mate, and the unsuccessful males fly away.
7/21/2009 Eggs on Wild Black Cherry leaves by a captive female
7/22/2009 Newly hatched larvae and eggs
7/25/2009 Newly hatched larvae and eggs
8/10/2009 Larva with newly shed skin
8/10/2009 Two instars
8/18/2009 older larvae
8/18/2009 Older larva
9/12/2009 last instar larva
9/12/2009 Cocoon in Wild Black Cherry leaf (captive larva)
9/12/2009 Cocoon attachment to Wild Black Cherry twig
6/23/2010 Newly elosed female (captive)
Wild moths and cocoons:
6/19/2011
3/3/2013 Wild Promethea cocoon hanging from a small wild cherry
7/1/2012
7/7/2017 A very dark female
