This is what happens when you buy mail-order luna moth cocoons on the internet.

I thought the packaging was hilarious. Here's the official looking box.

CAUTION!

Directions, more warnings and advice.

Here's the styrofoam cup they came in.

Ami was pretty excited to open such an official looking box.

Per the instructions, we prepared to soak our cocoons in our popcorn bowl.

Soaking the cocoons.

We put each of the three cocoons into a terrarium that Ami got for Christmas. This wound up being a mistake since the moth didn't have room to stretch it's wings after emerging. Unfortunately, he suffered some wing damage post emergence. Once the three cocoons were in the terrarium, we gave them a spritzer of water from a spray bottle every third day to keep them moist (per instructions).


Our first hatchling arrived on February 13th 2010, roughly three months after the package arrived. They weren't supposed to hatch until March or April. This one is a male (you can tell by the large antennae). The males need larger antennae to pick up pheromones that the females release. Anyway, we're hoping one of the other cocoons will hatch soon with a female so that we can try for some Luna babies.


Luna moths only survive in this final stage of their lives for about two weeks. They emerge, mate, lay eggs, and die. The nice thing about this project is that you don't even need to supply them with food. During this final stage, they don't eat. In fact, they don't even have mouths.

As you can see from the pictures, we had a big snow just before this guy hatched. This made handling him easy. We stuck him in the fridge for 20 minutes or so and then went outside to take our pictures. He hardly even crawled around in the cold and never came close to trying to fly.

Here's our supply list for this project:

Cocoons	We ordered ours here carolina supply.
Terrarium or Fish Tank	You'll need a decent sized one so that there is room for them to flutter around and stretch their wings.
Spray Bottle	We washed out an old hair spray bottle and filled it with water. The cocoons need to be sprayed every third day. Just enough to make the outside of the cocoon moist.

Other Tips:

• There's a wealth of information on the web about Luna Moths. Here are a couple sites we looked at... www.fcps.edu and www.wormspit.com
• Luna moths don't eat during this final stage of life, so there's no need to worry about food for them.
• Once they hatch, they need a little room to stretch their wings.
• If you want to get some pictures of them, you'll want to put them in the refrigerator for a few minutes first. The cool air will make them go into a dormant state and they'll remain lethargic for a few minutes after you take them out.
• To pick them up, carefully shut their wings, and hold them with thumb and index finger at the base of each wing just above the top of their head (try to only touch the red outer edge that runs along the top of each wing).