The Luna Moth Chronicles: Sadness

As some of you may know from reading my previous entries, I have been documenting my experiences raising a small batch of luna moths. We started with 5 eggs which all hatched, lost 3 caterpillars at different intervals throughout the process, and as of Thanksgiving were down to 2 caterpillars which successfully pupated.

It had been 6 1/2 weeks since they cocooned and I was expecting them to overwinter, however, Saturday morning I found a terrible mess inside one of the containers.

Corvella hatched, which should have been a joyous occasion, but since she was 5 months early and inside a closed container it was a disaster.

Corvella's empty casing

It was very sad to see the destruction within the container. She tore her wings up struggling to get out, and since she could not hang to dry her wings, they dried crumpled.

I was informed my pupae were male, but as it turns out at least one is female. Her antennae are narrow, unlike a male's antennae which are wide. She even laid 3 unfertilized eggs!

We were planning to build a box for the pupae but thought we had time. One of the websites I was referring to said the pupae should hatch within 2-3 weeks; otherwise they would overwinter. Obviously that was not the case. :(

So that leaves me to wonder two scenarios:

1) Did Corvella hatch early? We had warm weather during the past several days prior to her emergence. Did that cue her that it was "spring" and time to hatch?

2) Alternatively, perhaps she never intended to overwinter. We had very warm weather (80 degrees F) during her 4th and 5th instars. I was very careful to limit her exposure to daylight, covering her container in the evenings. The length of the day is supposed to be what causes the caterpillars to produce the hormone which triggers them to overwinter, but I wonder if temperature plays a part also?

Corvella lived for 3 days, passing on to the heavenly realms early this morning. My 5 year old cried when she hatched because he realized the gravity of the situation, but did not cry at our burial proceedings. He seems to have worked through his grief.

I am saddened and a bit frustrated. All that hard work of caring for those caterpillars...