Cottonmouth Water Mocassin, (Agkistrodon piscivorus), May 23,
2008,
Bon Secour, Baldwin County, Alabama, courtesy of Dirk Bayer.
Cottonmouth Water Mocassin, (Agkistrodon piscivorus), May 23, 2008
Cottonmouth Water Mocassin, (Agkistrodon piscivorus), May 23, 2008
Dirk rears many butterflies and moths on his
homestead in Alabama. Cottonmouths can be quite protective of their
territory, and this snake is a big one. I hope the only run-ins Dirk
has with this beauty are at "camera length".
If you plant flowers and larval hosts, the butterflies will come;
if you "plant" fish, expect some other visitors.
Eacles imperialis female, form nobilis, Baldwin County, Alabama,
May 20 2008, courtesy of Dirk Bayer.
I suggested that maybe the female had eclosed very close to the light source and had been drawn in before pairing. Female Saturniidae usually do not fly until after they have paired, at least not until the third or fourth night.
On May 14, 2008 Dirk reports, "The female imperialis would flutter around in the cage every time her sibling male would come near her so I released him at 9p.m and by 1a.m. she had attracted a wild male and was mating. When I looked in her cage at 9am, they had seperated, so I should have some fertile eggs by morning."
On May 16, Dirk writes, regarding the female described above, "The imperial only laid about 30 eggs last night, so I could only fill+ mail the order for 12 eggs today. She laid about a doz.eggs so far tonight and then lowered her scent gland and attracted another wild male and is mating again at 1 am.
"I usually get my eggs from wild females, so I am not that familiar with the behavior of reared imperials. Is mating twice a common trait? I noticed that she mated for about 5 hr. the first time. Perhaps mating time was not suficient to fertilize all her eggs for some reason. What is the normal mating time for imperials?"
Based on recent communication with Eugene Morton (see Callosamia promethea Multiple Pairings: Impact on Egg Deposition Numbers, Dirk's earlier observations of C. securifera and this most recent report on E. imperialis, I am beginning to wonder if multiple pairings might be a much more common natural process than is reported.
The multiple pairings of E. imperialis did not involve the suffused form "nobilis" pictured above. It is believed she is a sibling on the much more common yellow form.
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