Found in my yard in Medicine Hat, Alberta on September 19/18 SE Alberta
Found in my yard in Medicine Hat, Alberta on September 19/18 SE Alberta
Looks to be some sort of Saturniidae cocoon. I wouldn't be able to tell what species until it hatched. You might need to over-winter it until spring.
Looks like a polyphemus moth cocoon that isn't finished being spun. Did it become thicker and more opaque over the next couple days?
Keep it till it emerges! If it is a Polyphemus moth then that will be super cool. I caught an adult Polyphemus a few years back, it was incredibly large, and looked like a bat.
I accidentally froze all my ants
I've kept a ton of silkmoths. From this pic alone seems more like a Luna, as they have thinner cocoons than polyohemeus
The caterpillar is still visible inside, so the cocoon is definitely still in the early stages of spinning and thickness is irrelevent.
I guessed polyphemus because their cocoons are more frequently built in trees or out in the open and tend to be much more commonly encountered. Also, if you look at the range of the two species, polyphemus seems to be the one more likely to turn up in southeastern Alberta:
https://www.inatural...?taxon_id=47916
https://www.inatural...?taxon_id=47916
Edited by Salmon, January 17 2019 - 6:43 PM.
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