Silk Moth Mating: Saturnia albofasciata (+hand-pairing) V01043

This short documentary, shot in Santa Clarita and Juniper Hills, CA during, 2007, shows how the rare and difficult to rear White-Streaked Silkmoths (Saturnia albofasciata) can be mated in captivity, both hand-paired and un-assisted. In order to study and document this (and other species) in great detail, multiple generations must be reared in the lab/studio over the course of several years. Some Saturniidae species manage to mate easily in captivity, but albofasciata in particular has difficulty in an indoor environment, and so hand pairing usually becomes necessary to ensure a new batch of fertile eggs for the next season. While the hand-pairing method might seem "forced" or otherwise unfair to the female, in reality she controls the situation by releasing a scent (pheromone) which tells the male where she is and that she's ready to mate. She only releases her pheromone under certain conditions for a short time each day. Without it, the male does not know she exists and won't try to couple with her - even when held right against her. Since this species doesn't eat as adults, it's critical that she finds a mate as soon as possible after emerging. She only has a few days in which to mate and lay all 60 - 120 of her eggs before she runs out of stored energy and dies. Hopefully this info will make the methods used in this study seem a little more reasonable =) The full life cycle video can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIhlj3ZMxqg Detailed Saturnia albofasciata life history with full documentary website is here: http://lepidoptera.jcmdi.com/m/Sat/albofasciata/albofasciatap.html The soundtrack is "Jolly People" from the "Digital Dreaming" CD by Technician (yours truly), album and single track available on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/digital-dreaming/id416815761 full artist discography and CDs available at HTTP://technician.jcmdi.com Note: The audio and video material contained herein is copyright 2014 JCM Digital Imaging, however, you may download this footage directly from YouTube and use it free of charge in your own non-profit/non-commercial YouTube videos, school projects, etc. The full free usage policy and YouTube copyright notice/ad info can be found here (please read before using JCMDI material): http://jcmdi.com/stockfootage/faq.html#freeusage http://jcmdi.com/stockfootage/faq.html#partner Much more Lepidoptera and nature photography, video and documentary at JCMDI.COM Enjoy!