Setting Females to Call Using the "Air Conditioner" Method

By Alex Baranowski

When breeding native Saturniids, setting females out to call for wild males is a practical way of keeping bloodlines fresh and avoiding inbreeding, which can cause deformities eventually. With non-native species inbreeding is the only option if unrelated stock to breed with your own stock cannot be obtained. Different keepers have different methods of letting females call, from attaching them to a surface or putting them in a specially designed cage. My method is known as the air conditioner method, and you will soon find out why. To start, you need three things, a net cage, a freshly eclosed female Saturniid, and a house. You can use any net cage from a butterfly cube to a homemade one. Just be sure the edges are strong (if using a flimsy fabric one I’d reinforce the edges with wood or bamboo sticks/skewers) and that the net cage is a cube that can open well (the opening occupies much of one side).

Here is a picture of what I use, I made the frame out of wooden sticks from the craft store and hot glue, the bottom is a piece of toweling, and the top is completely cut away. I used insect screen as netting, and it works really well. I made the whole thing for under $15 so that’s very convenient.

Now it’s time to make a decision. Do you want to use the net cage exclusively for calling females or do you want to use it for other things too? I use my 1 cage exclusively for calling moths so I custom built and modified it to be used like that. Understanding the anatomy of a calling cage should help you decide. The 3 most important parts are the front, back, and top. The front is the end with the opening. You want the opening to be large so a male can get inside, but there also needs to be a ridge in the front in front of the top so the female doesn’t accidentally crawl out. This brings me to the top, the area where the female will be hanging upside down on calling. Finally, the back is the side opposite the front. These pictures should help you out.

The purple highlighted portion is the top, red is the back, and blue is the front.

The green is the ridge that keeps the female inside. It is only about ½ an inch tall.

I will talk about the security string later, I have it threaded through the top back of the cage, but strong tape also can hold it in place. The next step is to put the female in the cage. I do this about 30 minutes before sunset so she is calm when I set the cage in its place for the night. I put her inside on the top and just let her be. Now is the trickiest part of all, finding a good spot for her. The best place is a second or third floor window facing the woods, and the window should have a screen and an actual glass window. In my house we have 4 suitable windows but 2 are in my sister’s room and one is in my mom’s room, my room is across the hallway and facing the road, so I use my bathroom window. You want to wait until the sun has set so no birds get at the female, and the next morning you will want to remove the cage before sunrise.

Be sure the window opens enough to fit the cage through, and be sure the top is facing upwards at the sky. Close the screen onto the cage to hold it but be sure you can close the main window so nothing gets into the house overnight. I close the window on the security string for extra security to be sure it stays put. Then I close the shade and call it a night, though I usually awake at 3-4 am to use the bathroom and that’s when I bring in the cage, unless the female is still calling at that time, as in Hyalophora cecropia, and I always bring them in before 5am (typically sun is just rising and I can hear birds outside). These pictures will demonstrate what the procedure in this paragraph is.

Here I have put the moth in the cage on the top

The woods that is visible outside the window, also which is my garden and my sister’s swing set.

You can see the window and a screen, you want to open both and stick the cage out so it is held by the screen

I closed the window so it is secure

and pulled down the shade so that nobody disturbs the moth.

After I bring the moth in, if she is mating I put the cage on a flat surface and leave them be until they separate then put the female in a paper bag. If she has not mated, I try again the next night until she either mates or flies away to lay infertile eggs.

In this picture, you can see why it’s called the air conditioner method, the cage looks like an air conditioner sticking out of a window:

I have the links to 2 videos I made in case you had any more questions about the air conditioner method, I tried to make it one but the camera died halfway through and I had to charge it for like 20 minutes before making part 2, part 1 is the structure and function of the cage and part 2 is the installation of the cage.

Link to part 1:

Air conditioner method part 1 - YouTube

Link to part 2:

Air conditioner method part 2 - YouTube

Now time for the advantages/disadvantages of the air conditioner method:

Advantages:

• Stays inside so you don’t have to go outside to place or collect the moths, useful for the young, the elderly, or for people who live in an area where it is dangerous to go outside at night

• The large opening makes it easy for males to enter the cage

• Multiple moths can fit in the cage

• The calling cage is small and mobile, useful if you are out of town with your moths or on a camping trip

• The cage is inexpensive to obtain or make

Disadvantages:

• The same large opening that allows males in makes it easier for predators to get at the moths

• The moths being so close to you make you tempted to constantly check on them, making you and any other housemates lose sleep

The air conditioner method is a good method of letting your moths call for mates. If you have a system that works for you, then the air conditioner method may not be the best for you, but if you need a new system or want to try something new, experiment with the air conditioner method.

I wish to commend Alex Baranowski on several counts:
He has 1) shared a 2) well written, 3) well oganized article, 4) depicting and 5) describing an 6) original idea he 7) fleshed out into a 8) workable design in an 9) effort to solve a problem. Alex has also 10) incorporated some YouTube video into his article.

I was quite impressed that all of the above would come from such a young man.

Alex has reported some success, but has also experienced some losses.

Some potential problems that I see in his design are as follows:
1) the design does not offer the female(s) and potential males much protection from predation by birds. Once one curious bird works up the courage to explore the "air conditioner" cage and samples the treasures within, I would be very surprised if any moths would be safe in such confines.
2) the design does not adequately contain a female that might become dislodged by the male's approach. I have seen females in wire mesh/hardware cloth cages release their grip and fall to the bottom of the cage either to shortly flutter or crawl up to a fresh mooring on the side of the cage. In Alex's design it is possible for such a startled dislodged female to actually "fly the coop".

I do think with some tweaking, Alex could modify his design to create an "air conditioner" calling cage model to cover both of my concerns. Then he or others could enjoy, from the privacy of their own homes or bedrooms, without disturbing others, the wonderment of Saturniidae pairings.

I often watch male cecropia fly in during twilight hours to copulate with calling females in my cylindrical hardware cloth cages. For my columbia, I have been getting up around 4:30 am, the onset of calling time, to watch wild males fly-in to caged females. In such cases I usually hand captured the males and put them inside the cage with the calling females. Pairing with that species is almost instantaneous im most cases, and then I can bring the cages indoors where I do not have to worry about predation by birds.

3) A third concern I have about the "air conditioner" method, and it may be a concern of little consequence, is in the area of wind assisted distribution of pheromone. I do not know if there would be interference with such distribution if prevailing winds were perpedicular to the line of the wall of the house. Certainly there would be no such concern with a mesh cage in an open area.

For other examples of calling cages, please visit
Portable hardware cloth cages which I use regularly, and
A Calling Cage with Electronic Aid for the Study and Enjoyment of Saturniidae by Don Adams.