Sex! :)
The obligatory silkworm moth porn. LOL
Here is the first mating for this year. The tiniest boy got the girl, partly because he had the good luck to be in the same box with her when she emerged, and partly because he had good enough orientation skills (actually finding the female when you are high on her pheromone is quite an achievement in the silkworm world).
See, he is visibly smaller than her (and she's not very big by silkworm moth standards), but that didn't stop him. No, males aren't typically darker than females; it just so happened this time. I think the difference in colour is due to their hybrid origin.
The female is so fat because 1. she is full of eggs; 2. she needs an energy supply to lay those eggs and 3. the rest is her general food supply. Silkworm moths can't eat anything, so they live on what they have stored in their bodies as caterpillars. That's not from the domestication; the wild predecessor is like that too. All that trouble of metamorphosis for just breeding!
And I still don't have enough females for all the males. But it's typical for the males to emerge first, so I'm still hopeful for those bachelor boys. :)
Here is the first mating for this year. The tiniest boy got the girl, partly because he had the good luck to be in the same box with her when she emerged, and partly because he had good enough orientation skills (actually finding the female when you are high on her pheromone is quite an achievement in the silkworm world).
See, he is visibly smaller than her (and she's not very big by silkworm moth standards), but that didn't stop him. No, males aren't typically darker than females; it just so happened this time. I think the difference in colour is due to their hybrid origin.
The female is so fat because 1. she is full of eggs; 2. she needs an energy supply to lay those eggs and 3. the rest is her general food supply. Silkworm moths can't eat anything, so they live on what they have stored in their bodies as caterpillars. That's not from the domestication; the wild predecessor is like that too. All that trouble of metamorphosis for just breeding!
And I still don't have enough females for all the males. But it's typical for the males to emerge first, so I'm still hopeful for those bachelor boys. :)
