Family Saturniidae
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What bug is this?
Hello,
I have attached a picture of a bug I recently "captured" outside my house. Could you tell what it is?
Thanks,
Jay
Hi Jay,
You have a photo of a Polyphemus Moth, one of the giant silkworm moths. As adults, they do not feed, living only a few days to mate. The caterpillars are ravenous feeders.
moths
Hello, I caught these moths outside my home in Tucson Arizona and i was wondering if you could identify one, the other I know is a white- striped sphinx moth. Thank you, Jossy
( The pins are because they are apart of aninsect collection, 521 and 526 are the sphinx moth, 527 and 523 are the unknown moth Thanks!)
Hi Jossy,
Your sphinx is a Striped Morning Sphinx or White-Lined Sphinx as you supposed. Your unknown moth is Leptarctia californiae, though that name may be obsolete. It is a highly variable species found in Southern California.
Corrections
(11/10/2004)
I happened upon your site and noted a few errors that should be corrected. I only dealt with the Giant Silkmoths (Saturniidae) and Hawkmoths (Sphingidae) for which I have written textbooks and am intimately familiar. The corrections are as follows: In the photo dated September 9, 2004 labeled moths
A few for your collection!
Hi there Bug People!
I like to photograph only the most taken for granted of things in the world…lowly mushrooms and fungus, insects, small rodents, amphibians, etc… I have included a few ( a very small sampling ) of my ‘insect world’ favorites for 2004. Hope you enjoy them! (Personally, I love the Imperial Moth that befriended my hand…the Stag is second place) All of these photos are from the location described below.
Kindest Regards,
Scott Pierson
Actual Location Data: (of all insect photos attached) Earleville, MD – in a small, private community named ‘Hazelmoor’.
Latitude: 39.4401 Longitude: -76.0247
Time is always (approx) between the hours of 20:30 to 00:00 hrs, EDT
My Goodness, Scott,
I admire the structuralist tendencies you have applied to your insect photographs. We agree that your Imperial Moth photo is amazing.
Thank you for your reply – I didn’t realize that you’d already posted it the website! My previous email did not include that “I think the site is great!” What a service to folks – especially those interested in insects. This is a great wealth of information and the fact that there are photos to examine is priceless. It’s great that you take the time to help folks out like this. Thank you again! Kindest Regards, Scott Pierson
Hi-
We thought you would enjoy seeing another pretty luna moth that has been lounging on our front porch welcoming visitors since yesterday (8-3-04). Since then, it has moved from vertical to horizontal !! Not really exerting itself to much. We are in Dublin, OH (outside Columbus).
Kevin and Lorraine
Thanks so much Kevin and Lorraine,
We are rotating your photo to the vertical position to maximize the size as well as to include the ruler.
My Granddaughter found this in the yard. I thought you could let us know what type of Moth it is and did it lay eggs. Thanks so much for your reply. Samantha is extremly interested in nature and loves to care for our garden, She is outstanding. I am her grandmother so I think she is the best. Thanks again for your time and interest in this matter. If you have any printed material can you send it to her. thanks again.
Her name is Samantha C. from lewes, delaware. again I thank you for looking at these pictures and finding out what she found and what it’s name is.
D. Smith
Hi D.,
Your granddaughter captured a female Imperial Moth, Eacles imperialis, formerly Basilona imperialis. Those are indeed eggs. When the eggs hatch, tell your granddaughter to feed the caterpillars fresh leaves from Oak, Hickory, or Maple. The moth, which does not feed as an adult, might already be dead. They only live a few days, long enough to mate and lay eggs. Male moths have more purple on the wings. Sorry, we have no printed material to send to Samantha, whose address we tactfully deleted.
Hello,
I have been lucky enough to have seen a Luna Moth. It is so beautiful! It was found where I work and was alive for about 2 days (since being found). It has now died and I am wondering if you would know of a way I can keep it without it decaying, some way to preserve it. If you could help it would be greatly appreciated.
Dear Ripleys,
Lucky you. Great sighting. Where are you located? Your moth will dry naturally. The biggest danger is protecting it from dermestid which will devour it. These tiny beetles can be kept out with moth crystals.
A BIG Moth
I recently found a large moth hanging on our garage door. My wife trapped him for closer examination. This guy has a wing span of 4-5" and a body as large and meaty as the end segment of my thumb. He is brown with a black spot on each wing . each black spot is 1/2" in diameter and has a translucent center. He also has a translucent spot on each wing up toward his head about 1/4" in diameter. His wings are paper like in appearance and look a little fuzzy. He also has an outline of darker brown on the top/front of the wings and a lighter brown outline on the top/rear of the wings with a black and a white line separating colors. The under side of the wings is all light brown with very little color variation, except for the translucent spots. What is it?
Thanks, Don
pic of the BIG Moth
Hopefully this pic will help, I could only get the underside on my scanner, I don’t want to kill him and the photo didn’t turn out very good.
Hi Don,
You have a female Polyphemus Moth, Antheraea polyphemus, which was named for the one-eyed cyclops of Greek mythology because of the “eyespots” on the hind wings. It is a member of the giant silkworm family, Saturniidae. Adults do not eat, but live solelyh to mate and reproduce, living just a few days. By the looks of things, your female should be laying eggs soon, and if she is fertile, they will hatch into hungry caterpillars that eat oak, hickory, elm, maple, birch and other trees and shrubs. They are green and will grow to about 3 inches before spinning a plump cocoon either on the ground or attached to a twig. They are common in the South where there are two broods a year.
Thanks Bugman,
We did a little research and you confirmed our suspicions. We live in Hershey, Pennsylvania, hardly the South. Thanks so much for your quick response, have a great day!
Don & Cindy Hess
P.S. She is free now, but last we checked just hanging around
Orange Bug
We found this bug in our front yard this morning. My husband screamed and ran to get the camera. Can you tell us what it is?
Thanks,
Amy Lutero
Richmond, Virginia
Hi Amy,
I hope your husband has stopped screaming and is standing ready with the camera. You have a newly metamorphosed Virginian Anisota, Anisota virginiensis, a female. The moths pupate in the ground without a cocoon. The caterpillar feeds on oaks. As the name implies, the moth is local for you, ranging throughout the Appalacians from Canada to the Carolinas, and occasionally as far West as Kansas and Missouri. The wings will expand with time, and if you are ready with the camera, you should have a lovely photo of the fully matured and flight ready moth, who will soon have male suitors attracted to her.
Hello there! You folks have a very informative web site and a much larger database than I thought. I am very pleased to have found you. My husband & I had this great visitor on May 22nd (it hung out all day) and would love to know what it is exactly. We live in Pike County, PA. near the Delaware River and I have never seen anything like this. He/she was gorgeous!
Thank you for your terrific site and for any help you may be able to give us in identifying this unique-looking (to us, anyway) insect.
Sincerely,
The Fisher’s
P.S. Wishing I had captured something this beautiful resting on something more beautiful (not our screen door), I Photoshopped our moth onto another picture I had taken of some Coral flowers years back.
Again, thank you! and have a terrific day!
Dear Fishers,
You have been lucky enough to see a Luna Moth, arguably the most beautiful North American moth. These are members of the Giant Silkworm Family Saturniidae. The caterpillar feeds on gum, walnut, hickory and persimmon tree leaves. In the fall it drops to the ground and forms a cocoon by spinning silk around a leaf. It winters on the ground and emerges as an adult moth in the spring. Adults do not feed. They live solely to mate. Congratulations on your wonderful sighting and also for sharing your beautiful photo with us. We are reproducing it full size, not the normal 3 inches we usually post. We also prefer your screen door to the floral background.
THANK YOU, Daniel. What lovely and warm people you are over there!!!! I never expected to hear back from you so soon. We appreciate your kinds words and expertise immensely. (And I agree, the screen door shot is better. Thank YOU.) Do take care, Roy & Carie Fisher
EDITOR’S NOTE: Vicki wrote to us about Stoneflies and included this intriguing bit of information: "The highlight of my day, though (other than seeing an otter) was finding a cocoon of a Polyphemus Moth, which I took a picture of and left to dangle patiently on its limb for a few more months." We requested that she send the photo.
More than happy to. This cocoon is hanging right over the creek (Tuckahoe Creek on the Eastern Shore of Maryland). Hopefully when the moth emerges, he’ll crawl UP.
Your web site appears to be serious but when I clicked on the luna moth the picture does not appear right. Before I share your site with others please checkout the photo. Maybe someone hacked into your site.
G. Roberts
Dear G.
If you go to the cryptozoology.com site, you will understand why we had some fun with this one.
