I'd put my bets on one of the birches or one of the cherries. Would love to know the favorite hostplant but I bet there are regional differences on what cecropias like. Miss Sherry's would probably go for the southern bayberry. ;)

When given the choice this year, my cecropias pick paper birch over crabapple and box elder maple. Heck, when given an edible choice, they always leave the box elder maple, no matter what instar they are. Last year, I had an aquarium setup in my son's class with regal on sweetgum, poly on Norway maple and cecropia on box elder. The cecropias kept eating the other cats' food.

Speaking about cecropia food, yesterday I strung some fencing around 4 of my chokecherries. Darn deer just will not leave them alone. I am worried about one of the chokecherries because it seems to have given up trying to grow leaves near the top.

Some folks on here questioned me planting staghorn sumac and chokecherries because they figured the bushes would take over my yard. The local deer have made sure that cannot happen.

KC

Mine preferred Prunus serotina, the good ole wild black cherry. I'm surprised they prefer red maple, Elisabeth - I wouldn't have picked that one myself. ;)
Sherry

Well, it was a choice between maples and sweetgum. I didn't give them a choice between other species. Next I will try some other things like black cherry and oak. My buttonbush is too small to sacrifice. The irony is that when we moved to our property the owner was tree crazy. So much so that we had to cut some trees down. He planted two oaks ten feet next to the foundation. He also planted a tulip, an ash, and something else huge ten feet apart in the back. We also had a black cherry growing through the fence. I think he joined the Arbor Tree foundation.

This was all before I got into butterflies. Had I known about this, I would have just coppiced everything. Hmmm...come to think of it, we did. We are too cheap to pay for stump removal. So, I can try some oak next since it keeps trying to come back. How about ash? Do they like that at all? I can't kill that tree stump.

I have a whole stream bank of honeysuckle I can't wait to plant this fall. Black cherry, spicebush, willow, nettle, what fun!

-Elisabeth

Cecropias eat ash BUT only use it if you want small moths. I have more ash than anything else so I have tried it with all my Saturniidae. Everything that did eat it never got close to full size. The HHDs got to maybe 3 inches and could not dig into dirt for pupation. They just pupated on the ground. Now if you want to raise full size emerald ash borers, ash is your ticket :( The borers are already in my county so my trees are doomed.

KC

How about black maple? I wonder if they can tell a difference between black and sugar maple - I certainly struggle with the difference!

My chokecherries are struggling, I'm not sure they are happy where I have them. I planted smooth sumac a few years ago, hoping it would take over but no luck yet. And then DP&L cut my wild cherry tree to the ground.

So, are the chokecherries and sumacs a host plant?

If you have chokecherry and smooth sumac, you have food for these moth caterpillars:

Cecropia
Imperial
Io
Luna
Polyphemus
Promethea
Regal

Substitute wild black cherry for chokecherry and then you would also have food for tulip tree moths. I planted chokecherries because I wanted a lot of leaves in a shorter time frame (deer ruined that plan). I planted a tulip tree the same year to cover the TTs.

all i have is regular cherry, but they will like that.
i have heard they wont hatch till next year, and i will have to overwinter them, how big are their cocoons?

I do have a few tulip trees. I've definitely had the first four moths you list, the last three I'm not sure - I'm still fairly new to moth watching. I've been disappointed with the moths this year, I'm not sure why I'm not seeing as many. We had some very cold temps this winter before we had snow cover, do you think that might have affected them?

So how come I never see mourning cloaks? I have elms and there are cottonwoods around but I've never seen one.

Elisaeth, I am so sorry for hijacking your thread, I think maybe I should start my own!

No worries Jeanner. I am learning alot and enjoying the comments. It seems I should plant a black cherry forest. I am glad to hear that TT moths eat black cherry. Dan gave me some of those this summer. The deal is though, we plan on cutting down our tulip tree in the house. It is a monster and only supports tigers (and TT moths). Since black cherries supports so much more we plan on putting that in. It will be more manageable.

I don't know why you are not seeing mourning cloaks. We have them at the arboretum and at Grant park in Centerville. I don't have them in the woods near my house. I wonder if they need space They do like to patrol.

-Elisabeth

Thanks Elisabeth, I have so much to learn and I tend to jump right into the middle trying to learn as much as I can.

Am I reading your comment right, that you have a tulip tree IN the house?

This is really straying from the "cecropia" theme but ...

The reason I planted staghorn sumac was for regals and lunas, plus it grows quickly. Oehlke's website says regals will eat wild black cherry while HOSTS does not list Prunus at all. Oehlke's website lists no Prunus for lunas but HOSTS does. Depending on who is correct, wild black cherry may cover ALL the moths I want to raise. My wild black cherry is still in pots so I'm not going to be testing anytime soon. Miss Sherry is the resident Prunus serotina expert so maybe she will weigh in on whether she ever raised lunas on it (I don't remember her ever raising regals).

KC

Elisabeth,

About tulip tree, it supports more than TT moth and tigers. You can also use it for cecropia, promethea, polyphemus, luna and io.

One advantage of the tulip tree that became painfully obvious in my area this year is the gypsy moth cats do NOT like it. Where the gypsies went wild this year, the only trees left with leaves are the tulip trees.

KC

Jeanner;
Yes, it is in the house. It wants to be OUT of the house. We trim it back several times. This is a pain. However, if it will support the other moths, maybe we can take care of that problem by putting the moths on it. Do they grow on it well?

I loooove sumac. I think it's because I grew up in NYC and it grew out of every granite nook and cranny along highways. I have a tiger eye sumac. It's tiny now. I read a post somewhere, about HHD in a sumac. How could you not love that!

Oh, one interesting thing about the tulip tree is that in a row house it gets powdery mildew. Never thought a tree could get powdery mildew...

Now I have to ask, where do you get black cherry when you are actually looking for one? I think I know where I can get some wild ones.

How about other Prunus species? I have an american plum as well and am looking at Prunus mexicana as well. Oh so many plants, so little time.

-Elisabeth

I previously posted here that using ash with cecropias would result in small moths. Well, I had a lot of extra cecropia eggs this spring so I ended up raising cecropias on an ash stump that refuses to die. The stump keeps sprouting new growth which sports soft leaves, much different than the leaves on the older ash trees. The cats raised on the stump ash were my first cecropias into their cocoons and produced the longest and plumpest cecropia cats I had this year. So, I'm a believer in new growth ash leaves. BTW, emerald ash borers still have not hit my neighborhood but my in-law's neighborhood has been trashed.

Tried viburnum for the first time this year. I have no clue what kind it is. Sleeved 4 cats on it. Cats grew very slowly and then quit eating during 4th instar. YMMV

Friend came out to my house late July and I gave her some 2nd instar cecropias off one of my mystery maples (using the mystery maples too since I had so many cecropia eggs this year). She tried to get them to eat numerous species of leaves. The one cat that lived ate sweetgum. I got to see it yesterday and it is huge compared to its siblings that are still on my maple (saw two yesterday that are still 4th instar).

Started raising a bunch of cecropias on walnut last year and I'm doing it again this year. Using black walnut and English walnut. Cats do very well on it and readily switch between the two types of walnut.

This year, I tried to raise cecropias on a few more things.

Spicebush was a total no go. 1st instar cats would not even nibble on it. So all my spicebush continues to be worthless to me (also tried imperials on it since it is a listed imperial hostplant but they would not touch it either).

Wild rose looked more promising. Got 10 cats to 4th instar but then they quit eating.

Had many cecropias on quince. One by one, they died off. Still one guy left but he seems to be stuck in 4th instar.

I'm still having good luck with ash.

I raised the highest # of cecropias on box elder maple this year since it is my most plentiful cecropia host plant these days. The BEM continues to be the way to go if you want to have old caterpillars. I have at least ten late May caterpillars still eating.

The sweetgum I get from my neighbor has been a huge problem this year. Everything but the lunas (cecropia, poly, imperial, regal) have been dying on it. I finally started soaking it in 10% bleach but that does not appear to have helped. The last cecropia on it quit eating and the last imperial on it has the dreaded black liquid leaking out.

Bananas, could you possibly send me a few Cecropia and Polyphemus cocoons after they're spun and have sat for a week [this gives time to form pupa]? I live in premier moth country and have an abundance of red maple, birch, sweet gum, hickory and many kinds of oaks. If I end up with a few female Cecropia's and Poly's, I can likely call in some males for pairings next spring. This is too dry a year for as many moths and I don't blacklight.

KC,

I offered sugar maple and box elder to the cecropias and they seemed to prefer the box elder. But the polys seemed to prefer the sugar maple. The polys have all cocooned (and some have eclosed) but the cecropias are still just a munching along. It does seem like the box elder stays fresher. I have the lunas on walnut and they are eating but I have a hard time keeping it from wilting .... any tricks to that? What is the best host for lunas?

Jean,

Sweetgum seems to be the host you are most likely to find lunas on in Ohio. The cuttings hold up well too. I also use birch.

When I use black walnut for the cecropias, they are in sleeves so that is how I avoid wilting walnut. I think I used English walnut cuttings at a school last year with good success so maybe you just need English walnut. ;)

I had my last batch of poly eggs hatching the last couple days. Gonna be a race to see if they pupate before the leaves fall.

Any sat cat you can get started on sweetgum will usually be healthier, too. Sweet gum contains a natural antioxidant/antibiotic perfect for caterpillars.

Unfortunately I have no sweetgum - it's on the wish list but not there yet. I do have persimmon, do you think that would work? I've never cut it so I don't know how well it cuts. I was trying walnut because I have lots of it and the trees actually need some trimming up. I also have smooth sumac but it is not looking so good in this drought. And my birches have lost most of their leaves. I can continue to use the walnut and just cut fresh every day if that is best.

I'm going to backtrack some on my praise for ash. My cecropias on late summer ash are still 2nd instar while their siblings on walnut and birch are 5th instar.

Must be a fine line between when the ash leaves are good and not good for 1st/2nd instar cecropias. Cecropia cats which were 2 weeks older did great on the ash and are in their cocoons. The older ones were plowing through the same leaves while the newbies barely nibbled.

I've tried moving the cats to leaves that look fresher but no improvement. I'll have to see if any are willing to switch to walnut.

I have tried to raise 1st instar cecropias on tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) and it has gone nowhere. They nibbled, lived a few days, and died. 0 for 15. So, once again, you cannot believe everything you read.

Emerald ash borers are here in force. I've treated 2 ash trees, which makes those unusable for cecropias. I'm using the too far gone trees to feed some cecropias.

After years of trying to get polys to eat quince (like on various poly hostplant lists), I've given up. Cecropias became my focus last year. I started a bunch out on it. Most died but I got 4 to 4th instar and then switched them to another hostplant. All four were females, 3 of which mated (4th eclosed when I did not have time to try to get her a boyfriend). This year's caterpillars have done much better on quince. Some died while trying to shed but they were in the minority this year. What has become obvious is the caterpillars are developing very slowly and they are not very big. This picture is from yesterday. It is a 5th instar that just shed. I might be getting some puny cecropia moths next year.

In the future, I doubt I'm going to be trying to use the quince very much. The bush is just full of various species of crickets. I've known this before but I've never had 20 sleeves on the bush for 3 months. The crickets like to chew through my sleeves. I spent two hours yesterday duct taping the holes. I was using the tulip tree next to the quince for shade. Big ants kept dropping on my head and back the whole time. Was not my favorite activity.