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Sunday, 7 August 2011

Action at Last

Well, the four moths spent all day yesterday studiously ignoring each other, so obviously they were all males.  I'd put the unhatched cocoons into a different box, and this morning when I looked, another one had hatched.  I put this one into the box with the previous four and chaos immediately took over.  All four moths were crawling around the 5th, literally like moths round a flame.


The female is the one clinging tightly to her cocoon, whilst the males throng around her :-


One by one, the males are starting to give up :-


I think the moth in the centre is trying to muscle in on the action :-



And finally, the happy couple :-


It's a messy job - look at the state of the nice clean white paper!

There are still cocoons to hatch, so who knows, tomorrow there may be more females for the remaining males.
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4 comments:

  1. vika7 August 2011 at 16:39

    Wow!! Can't believe how much they have changed, amazing!

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  2. Anonymous7 August 2011 at 21:07

    Fantastic photos! So glad that you've had a mating couple after all the hard work you put in! Hope there's a bit more action still to come too! :)

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  3. goldilox7 August 2011 at 22:36

    Hi Vika,

    Yes, they've changed completely since you were here. Jak says hello by the way!

    Chris

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  4. goldilox7 August 2011 at 22:48

    Hi Kate,

    I've given up trying to sex them now - I get it wrong every time. Thankfully, the males knew the newcomer was a female, and that's the most important thing!

    The very last step is for the female to lay lots of eggs. Fingers crossed again!

    Chris

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