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 3 eggs DHJanzen100597.jpg high resolution
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| Rothschildia lebeau eggs, in short chains along the underside margins of Xanthoxylum setulosum (Rutaceae) leaflets. She lands on top of the leaf and curls her abdomen underneath to glue the eggs to the leaf, and then flies on to other plants. If she is confined to a plastic bag, she lays her eggs also, gluing them to the plastic bag where they will hatch normally. In other words, she is programmed to lay her eggs the first night after mating, and will do it irrespective of whether she finds the appropriate species of food plants for her caterpillars. If she was not mated during the night of eclosion, she lays sterile eggs the next night (not as many, though, as she would had she been mated) as well as pheromonally calls again for a male. This continues until death a few days later. | ||
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