The luna we reared had a rough start. The ova were sent to us by Robert Nuelle and Robert Nuelle (jr. and III) of Houston, Texas. (check out TexInsecta.com their website) They collected a female luna near Houston and she produced quite a few ova, of which they were gracious enough to send us about 20. It was in August... and unfortunately the package was delivered early in the day to my front door, where it sat for a few hours in the direct sunlight, and 100*F (shade) temp. The temperature in the package was easily 120*F. I feared the ova were cooked, but about 10 days later, almost half of them hatched. The rest did not. From their first day, they were bright green in color. They were really pretty little caterpillars, standing out brightly against the darker green of their leaves.

We started the small caterpillars feeding on cultivated Pecan leaves. For the first instar we kept them in closed plastic containers as with most other saturniids. About the time they shed into second instar, I had to leave for a week, so the night before I left I moved the larvae to pecan clippings in vases of water. I didn't leave good enough care instructions with the rest of the family, and when I got home I discovered that pecan does not keep well at all as clippings in water... The leaves and most of the caterpillars were the consistency of fresh corn flakes. Crispy dry. There were 3 larvae that appeared somewhat alive.

We nursed the remaining three caterpillars along on fresh clippings, changed daily. One morning after changing the leaves, one third- instar larva puked up a nasty black mess all over itself and just kind of hung there on it's perch. I've seen this before in other species and it usually indicates a viral infection and certain death. I removed this caterpillar, washed it off under running tap water, and dried it with a q-tip. I put it into one of the plastic containers we use for first instar larvae with some fresh pecan leaves. I didn't expect it to recover, but it did indeed. After about 36 hours of sitting motionless, it began feeding again!

We ended up with the three survivors reaching maturity... Two were significantly smaller than the third, and we believe they were "stunted" from all the stress they endured. Regardless, all three spun their cocoons among the leaves of their foodplant, gathering leaves around a white silk cocoon. The largest, "normal" size caterpillar was the last to spin, a day after the other two. Below is a photo of a fifth instar luna caterpillar. Click on the smaller pics below it to open large images of the same larva.


Actias luna is another species with the stereotypical "big green caterpillar" that I find so fascinating. They are somewhat reminiscent of polyphemus, but they do not reach the size or mass of poly. They do possess that wonderful "luminous" quality though. when the light is just right, they glow like emeralds.

Luna caterpillars do something very interesting just before pupation. When the caterpillar is ready to spin, they change color from bright green to a gold-green-brown color. This is a sure signal the larva is ready to spin up and go to sleep.

Our luna caterpillars spun their cocoons in the leaves of their foodplants. Apparently sometimes in the wild luna will pupate on the ground among leave litter or under rocks, bark, etc. and sometimes they will pupate among leaves on the tree where they've lived. Also, luna silk can be either the fine shiny white like our cocoons or a golden brown color. It would be good camouflage to spin the brown cocoons on the ground, as white silk would stand out and be easy for birds to find.
One interesting thing about luna cocoons is that the pupa within is very "active" compared to most saturniids. If a cocoon is picked up or moved, it usually prompts the pupa to wiggle and jump around. Occasionally they just start shaking around for no apparent reason. It's sort of comforting knowing the pupa is doing ok, and most likely will hatch into an adult moth.