The giant moths

Posted 8/21/12

June is the month of the giant moths.

My daughter, Lily, discovered a luna moth clinging with its velvety legs to our windowsill earlier this month. It was our first big moth sighting of the …

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The giant moths

Posted

June is the month of the giant moths.

My daughter, Lily, discovered a luna moth clinging with its velvety legs to our windowsill earlier this month. It was our first big moth sighting of the season.

The luna moth, named for the moon, with its luminous, pale green wings and long tails, is one of the most spectacular and best known of our native silkworm moths of the family Saturniidae. Other giant silk moths found locally include the cecropia, the promethea, the tulip-tree silk moth and the polyphemus—named after the one-eyed monster in Greek mythology because of the large eye-spots on its hind wings.

Our visiting luna was a freshly hatched male with perfect, ferny antenna and overlapping crepe-like tails. It rested at our window until nighttime, untroubled by the cat’s repeated batting against the window from inside.

Lily also spotted a cecropia moth fluttering in the lights of the McDonalds in Hancock one evening last week. It was an exciting find on our way by the drive-through window following the school’s annual spring music concert.

The cecropia, a dark brown and red-colored moth, has crescent eyespot markings. The cecropia is known as the largest moth in North America, with a wingspan of four to six inches.

As a kid, I raised cecropias, by “sleeving out” caterpillars on our pie-cherry tree. (The larva feeds on many species of deciduous trees including wild cherry, maple, apple, poplar, oak, sassafras, willow and birch.) The caterpillars were contained in a gauzy net sleeve, which allowed them to eat the leaves of the tree without escape. I had to remember to move them every few days.

The pupa, which looks like a little moth mummy, overwinters inside its cocoon. We kept them in the refrigerator drawer through the winter months. Some of the best, most memorable moments of my life were spent watching an adult cecropia moth emerge from its cocoon that following spring. The newly hatched moth had to move fast, dragging its fluid-filled body, to the highest point—in this case a nearby window screen—in order to expand its wings before they dried.

Although a porch light is enough to attract a luna or two, a great way to observe moths is to use a blacklight to attract them during the nighttime hours. The white, fluorescent bulb, made especially for entomologists, emits ultraviolent rays which draw a marvelous array of moths (including silkworm trophy moths) and other nocturnal insects. The light can be left on all night and checked at dawn. Wild females that are attracted to the light can provide eggs to start a stock.

It is important to note that the commercial silkworm moth, from which silk is produced, is not native to North America. It belongs to another family (Bombycidae). Our giant silkworms derive their name from the silken cocoons built by the larva of some species.

Now is the time to be on the lookout for these giant beauties which will continue to emerge through the early summer.

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