![]() ![]() ![]() A very robust body covered with a kind ofĭowny plumage an inch and a quarter long by five eighths thick. Then a red line, then yellowish border below or toward the tail, but brown Lunar cut tail of a sea green color with four conspicuous spots whitish within Five and a half inches in alar extent and about three inches long.with a remarkably narrow Water as if asleep, they appear to sleep during the day, as large as the smallerīirds. Henry David Thoreau jotted a few notes in his journal, June 1859: "I found a remarkable moth lying flat on the still A picture below shows one of the cousin moon moth species native to Thailand.īill Oehlke maintains a very detailed set of instructions on how to care for Luna moths from eggs to caterpillars and from caterpillars to pupa and hence to moths at the website: The sole North American species is Actias luna. A search on "moon moth" will yield information and pictures on many related species in Asia, Africa, and one in Spain that as a caterpillar, eats pine needles. Similar moths (night fliers with green coloring, wing eyespots and tailed underwings) live elsewhere in the world. ![]() This does not always work, as evidenced by the photo of dismembered remains found on top of a picnic table. There is a theory that moving the overwings apart to suddenly reveal what looks like large eyes on the underwings might briefly scare away an attacking bird or other predator, allowing the moth time to escape. Several large moth species have "eyespots" on underwings. Actually, these are brightly colored circles on the underwing. The female will deposit several hundred fertilized eggs over the next 2-3 nights.Ī careful look at the large photo discerns what appear to be faint circles on the upper wing, below and inward from the more obvious oval-shaped markings. Each male and female mate once (a process that takes several hours). He will then immediately turn and fly upwind into the mild night wind, traveling miles on her intensifying scent steam until he finds her perched on a tree branch. The detection system is so sensitive that a male in flight can detect the presence of just a few molecules in the air. The males use their intricately branched antennae to detect scent pheromones released by females. ![]()
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