This family of silkys were new to me back in 1996, l knew by fellow friends and members of the ELG that would prove very difficult to rear…but what l didn’t know was how much..

When l received them from my good friend Mark Pickup they were in the 2^nd instar, and feeding on apple, but as apple was not available to me l thought l would try cherry…Luckily for me they took it very well, and were reared throughout their instars indoors in a 3ft square cage…they grew very well and the descriptions of the larvae are as follows…

Yellow body with black tubercles with a black head..

Greeny blue body with red tubercles especially need the head, the head itself is yellow with a black stripe between the lobes. Black tufty tubercles cover the back and sides and bluey black dots down the middle of the back…

Head green and black, body green on sides blue on top. Pale blue tubercles on sides with black tubercles on on top, with 4 orange tubercles near the head. Anal segment light green, with pale blue tubercles on sides and are tipped with black setae…

This is a very beautiful larvae a cross between both parents, head lime green and the body grey green. The tubercles on top were yellow, and the tubercles on the head were placed by yellow blobs.. Which were tipped with black setae ( very striking to look at) the side tubercles were blue and the prolegs were yellow. The anal segment was green, the side tubercles were blue and covered with black setae, the spiracles were white ovals…

After five weeks l had six of these magnificent larvae in the final instar…then the usual problems occurred, they stopped feeding at first l thought they were ready to pupate, but it lasted for days before they started to drop of the foodplant, it was the usual case of either (A) fungal or (B) bacterial virus…by August after 5 weeks of looking after these creatures, and having dreams about what the adults would look like, they were all dead…all my other normal cecropia went the same way, as my good friend Dave lacey says its pot luck with this family, and growing foodplant in cages or some construction outside..will give you better chances of success with this wonderful family of silkys..

Cheers Paul for letting me ramble on…

IAN MASCALL