Family Saturniidae
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Giant moth?
November 22, 2009
This guy was resting on a wall in some woods I frequent for work in South Jersey. It was alive and did’nt seem to mind me taking photos of it. It was a decent six inches across and it was just impressive to see.
Tom Weightman
Haddonfield NJ
Imperial Moth
Hi Tom,
This gal is a female Imperial Moth, and she sure is a big specimen.
Imperial Moth
moth
October 6, 2009
Hi Bugman,
This moth looks like a dead leaf with it’s wings closed. When I set it on the table it struck a nice pose. It’s body on the underside is totally orange and there are pink blotches on the underside of the wings. Very pretty.
Jordan
Costa Rica
Hyperchiria nausica
Hi Jordan,
This beautiful moth does not have a common name. It is Hyperchiria nausica, and we located on Kirby Wolfe’s website.
Hyperchiria nausica
New Mexico Moths
September 15, 2009
Here are pictures of 2 moths that visited us the same night in August, up in the northern New Mexico mountains. I’ve been able to read some about them. Their size is noteable!
J. Ivy
Ute Park, New Mexico
Glover's Silk Moth
New Mexico Moths 2
I’m sorry, I doubled-up on one photo and left out the second moth.
J.Ivy
New Mexico mountains
Glover's Silk Moth
Hi J,
We are very happy you sent a second email with the other moth. Several of your photos of the Glover’s Silk Moth, Hyalophora comumbia gloveri, a subspecies of the Columbia Silk Moth, were incorrectly labeled Polyphemus Moth. Your second moth, though it looks like a Polyphemus Moth, is more likely the much rarer Oculea Moth, Antheraea oculea, which has a limited range in the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico, and possibly Texas. According to the World’s Largest Saturniidae Site: “Oculea is best distinguished from polyphemus by the orange ring around each eyespot and extensive blue and black scaling on all wings. Polyphemus has a yellow ring around each eyespot and black scaling is much less pronounced.”
Oculea Moth
Red Moth
September 6, 2009
I found this outside my door the first week in September. It did not move for two days, but then it moved to the door across from my condo. A few days later it was gone
LP
Bonita Springs, Florida
Io Moth
Dear LP,
This is a female Io Moth. The males have yellow upper wings. Had you disturbed the moth, you may have been treated to the startling eyespots on the underwings. When disturbed, Io Moths, like many other Giant Silkmoths, will reveal these lower wings to startle a predator. A bird or other predator might then think the creature it tried to eat was a much larger head staring at it, and fearing that it might become the prey instead, the predator might then fly away.
I never saw anything like this before
August 31, 2009
I saw this bug on August 31 around 2:00 pm while I was at work. It seemed to be resting on the side of a wall next to a doorway. I thought it was a leaf at first but at a second glance I realized it wasn’t. I never saw a flying insect like this before especially around my area so I am curious as to know what it is.
Matthew S. Gremo
Philadelphia PA, USA
Battered Luna Moth
Hi Matthew,
This is a very battered Luna Moth that is missing its elegant tails. Though the tails are quite distinctive and lovely, they are not truly necessary for flight or survival. Since Luna Moths are tasty treats for birds and bats, we suspect the life of many a Luna Moth has been spared when a predator made off with a mouthful of wing rather than a fat succulent body. It is our opinion that the wing development of a Luna Moth is a highly evolved survival tactic. Luna Moths do not feed as adults, and die within a few days of emergence from the pupa. If losing the tails on the wings allows the adult moth to survive just a few hours longer, it will have time to mate and lay eggs, securing the production of a new generation.
Zephyr Eyed Silkmoth pic
August 29, 2009
Thanks for the caterpillar ID! I have a nice pic of a silkmoth in full, angry display. Can you pass it along to BugGuide? He says on the site that he doesn’t have a pic of one displaying.
Mike
Edgewood, New Mexico, 7000′ pinion forest
Zephyr Eyed Silkmoth
Hi Mike,
Thanks for sending us a photo of the adult Zephyr Eyed Silkmoth, Automeris zephyria, to accompany the caterpillar images your sent us the other day. Here at What’s That Bug? our editorial staff posts all of the letters and images to our site individually, while BugGuide has postings initiated by the readership. Right now, the time it would take us to submit a posting to BugGuide on your behalf would prevent us from posting letters to our own site, depriving our readership of several new letters and depriving our own querants from seeing their letters online. If time permits in the future, we will try to post your letter to BugGuide, but for now, it will be on the internet at our own site.
Luna Moth laying eggs
August 28, 2009
Thought you might be interested in seeing the coloration of this Luna just after laying her eggs.
Boyd
A little East of Shreveport, LA
Luna Moth laying Eggs
Hi Boyd,
We are very excited to post your image of a Luna Moth laying eggs.
Bug Love: Hera Buckmoths
August 25, 2009
Hi Lisa Anne and Daniel. As you can imagine, I was quite pleased today to find these mating Hera Buckmoths on the ranch of my friends Bart and Gay Lynn Byrd. I hope you enjoy them also.
The improvements to your site are great 
Peace
Dwaine
north of Glenrock, WY
Mating Hera Buckmoths
Hi Dwaine,
Thanks so much for sending your awesome photos of mating Hera Buckmoths. We are copying our webmaster who just spent an entire work week on our site improvements. We dumped all of our revenue into a new server and we are thrilled with the new found speed.
Mating Hera Buckmoths
What kind of moth is this?
August 24, 2009
We found this moth at a lake in northern Wyoming. It has very feathery antennas. White wings with black spots. Its abdomen is white and black striped, with a fuzzy orange head and thorax. My images are not real clear. Thank you.
Allison
northern Wyoming
Hera Buck Moth
Hi Allison,
This is some species of Buck Moth in the genus Hemileuca, possibly the Hera Buckmoth, Hemileuca hera. You can see if the photos posted to BugGuide match your moth.
Beautiful green moth
August 21, 2009
I found this unusually large moth in July. It was 4 inches from tip to tip with green wings and gold antenna. Unfortunately, it was barely alive and died shortly after.
Peter
Central Virginia
Luna Moth: Dead of Natural Causes
Hi Peter,
This is a Luna Moth, what most people consider to be the most beautiful North American moth. At any rate, it is the most distinctive North American moth, and is not likely to be confused with any other native species by even the least observant individual. Luna Moths do not feed as adults and only live a few days, long enough to mate and lay eggs. Thanks for providing us with a view of the underside of the moth, a vantage we rarely receive.
Luna Moth: Dead of Old Age
Polyphemus Moth
August 17, 2009
While on vacation, i found this Polyphemus moth hanging around one of the buildings in the resort i was staying at. every morning i would walk around the buildings looking for moths. and each day i would usually find 5 or 6 large silk moths. this one was on the same building each day, but always in a different place. i saw this one for about a week and it was in good shape, so i took pictures. i picked him up every time and carried him around that building looking for more, and put him back where i found him before moving to the next building. its alway fun getting the ” wow look at that bug” or “dude you have a bug on your shirt.” moths have fascinated me since i was little. especially the larger silk moths.
Zach
Kissimmee, Florida
Polyphemus Moth
Hi Zach,
Thanks for sending us your nice letter and wonderful photograph of a Polyphemus Moth.
Big moth and black widow
August 14, 2009
My son and I had a Discovery Channel moment leaving the post office yesterday. This moth was alive, and the spider was working very hard to wrap it up. It would climb up, drop a line down, throw a couple of legs over the moth, go over to the other wing, and repeat. The moth was fluttering but losing the battle.
We couldn’t believe this was right in the middle of the sidewalk (yes, there was a brick column in the *middle* of the sidewalk) at the entrance to a busy post office in the middle of the day!
I was going to take video but could only manage a quick cell phone photo before a well-meaning man came up and stomped the spider.
I think this is a real black widow, but I’m having trouble positively identifying the moth. We see them all the time here in Georgia – as the summer progresses, the moths get bigger.
Can you help?
Patty and Gabriel
Powder Springs, Georgia
Black Widow captures Regal Moth
Hi Patty and Gabriel,
We are sorry to hear that this shy and retiring, though poisonous Black Widow was stomped before getting to enjoy its gargantuan meal. The moth is a very bedraggled Regal Moth or Royal Walnut Moth. Its appearance indicates that it was already at the end of its short adult life. Regal Moths do not feed as adults, and only fly long enough to mate and lay eggs, and possibly, like this specimen, provide a nutritious meal to a lucky predator.
