1) starting just at dawn (Hyalophora columbia);
2) mid morning (Saturnia walterorum);
3) mid morning til noon (Anisota virginiensis);
4) late afternoon (Callosamia promethea)
Here on Prince Edward Island, Hyalophora columbia are usually on the wing in June, while I am still busy teaching school. The females begin calling just at dawn and heavy concentrations of larch, the natural hostplant, are several miles away from my home.
To get successful pairings, avoid feeding the birds, and still get to school on time, I set my alarm clock for 4:00 am, put my fresh females in cylindrical mating cages (1/2 inch hardware cloth mesh, eight inch diameter, twelve inch height), and head out to the Valleyfield woodlot several miles away. At the woodlot, I carefully set the cages on the ground and wait.
Within fifteen minutes (now 4:30 am), I usually see the first male or two. I usually capture them with a net and put the biggest into the cage with the female. Pairing takes place almost immediately and the couple remain paired until evening. I let the 'relationship" get well established for at least ten minutes and then carefully lift the cages and carry them to the car for a slow ride home. By 5:00 am I can usually crawl back into bed for two hours sleep.
I will probably devise a 1/2 inch mesh cage within a screened, protective cage that willl allow males to drop through an outer funnel to access the females in the inner cage. This will allow me to set cages at night and harvest protected pairs around 7:30 am. Although it is always a thrill to watch the males come in and quite a wonderment regarding their ability to track the pheromone, I still need my sleep!
Saturnia walterorum and most of the other Saturnia species pair shortly after 10:00 am and the coupling frequently lasts for as few as fifteen minutes. I have no indigenous stocks nearby (walterorum fly in California). I had a successful pairing several years ago: early in the morning, I put a female in a large cage (1/4 inch mesh, two feet wide, three feet high cylinder) surrounded by an even larger screen enclosure on my upstairs balcony. I also introduced a much smaller male to the same inner cage before leaving for work in the morning.
At lunch time, I was able to check the cage. The moths were not coupled but were in very close proximity. Certainly the male had moved to the female.
The female was relocated to a small brown paper sandwich bag and she bagan ovapositing the same evening. These eggs did not begin to hatch for at least three weeks and I believe incubation lasted closer to four weeks for most of them.
Coupling takes place almost immediately once the males have access to the females and the pairs usually remain together until evening when the females begin their ovapositing flights.
From my early boyhood, I can still remember a woman telling my father, "You've got the sexiest backyard in New Jersey." She was referring to the numerous male promethea flying around an outdoor cage, housing a "calling" female.
Shortly after 3:30 pm males would be on the wing in Roselle. Quite a few times I'd be on the street riding my bicycle when several frenzied males would almost "bee-line" it directly to the cage. Flight was extremely rapid and I witnessed very little deviation as the males flew down the open corridor of the road. Dad would catch a male and put him in the screened enclosure, and coupling usually ensued almost immediately.
I have seen unmated female promethea still pair five days after eclosion despite having begun ovapositing, usually on the third or fourth day. Pairs usually remain coupled for up to twenty hours with separation the following evening.
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