Rosy footman eggs hatch

The eggs of the rosy footman (Miltochrista miniata) have hatched and, after posing for a picture on the grass blade where the eggs were laid, have disappeared into my breeding box full of tasty mosses and lichens.

Apparently they are quite easy to rear, so I shall keep them until they are larger before putting them out in the wild. In my first posting on this species I had read that the caterpillars fed on lichen, but apparenty they feed on mosses as well, so we might have a resident population in Emthree.

Rosy footman eggs retrieved

Today the rosy footman moth I found yesterday had disappeared, but her neatly arrayed eggs were still in place on the grass blade.

 

Here they were too far from any of the tree lichens the larvae eat, so I have brought them indoors. When the hatchlings emerge I will put them out in areas where plenty of lichen grows and maybe keep a couple to see if I can rear them through.