Yesterday I found a beautiful Laurel Sphinx caterpillar walking along my gravel walkway:) It was pouring out and I made the decision to take it in for the winter, but here's my problem...
*What and how can I feed it? Sounds like a straightforward question, but it's a bit more complicated:(
It's fall and I'm in a forest, literally, on top a mountain and most of the trees have dropped or are in the state of dropping their already brown and dried up/ changed leaves:(
Several care sheets and articles I've read on the Laurel Sphinx caterpillar said it prefers Lilac, Ash, Fringe, Privet, and plants in the Olive family, luckily I have a lilac bush, incredibly small, but its leaves are almost all gone and whats left are yellowed and not very "healthy" looking. I picked a few of the leaves and put them in the container but it doesn't seem interested in them.
prior to this week it's been in the 60's during the day and in the 30's & 40's at night, but this weeks been unseasonably warm and 70's in the day and 60's at night. After today the temperatures will be returning to the cooler temps.
I'm planning on adding soil to it's enclosure and keeping it in my window, so it's exposed to the outside temperatures so it winters.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.
Last year I caught and cared for a polyphemus moth(I pray that's the spelling and correct name), which I actually thought was a Luna moth caterpillar, that was a surprise, anyway, it made a cocoon in the fall and in spring emerged in my bathroom window! I was lucky enough to have gotten a female and was shocked by all the males fluttering around outside the window screen:) I brought her outside and put her on my windows screen and she mated almost immediately, which went on for several hours and few off;) It was one of the most amazing experiences.