Moth Swarm
We live in Northern Vermont and for the last several days we have had 50-75 individuals of the same type moth flitting around the outside of our house. Our inside cats are fascinated and our outside cat is batting them out of the air. Any help identifying and information on whether it is usual to see these numbers in one place would be appreciated. You can see our cat’s head in the corner of one of the pictures. Thank you,
Jerry Smith
Hi Jerry,
Due to the sheer volume of letters we receive and also due to our many obligations in life, we can only post a fraction of the mail and images we receive. Many factors govern our decision, but when we receive a high quality photo with a detailed letter of a new species for our site, it is a no brainer. This is the first Promethea Silkmoth image we have received though a caterpillar image did come our way in the past. The Promethea Silkmoth, Callosamia promethea, is one of the giant silkmoths. They are found in the Northeast portion of the U.S. aw well as Canada. Adults do not feed and live only a few days, long enough to mate. You were fortunate enough to witness a nuptial flight. The moths had synchronized biological clocks and this mass emergence must have been triggered by the perfect weather conditions.