forest moth – Trail Trotter's Flower Guide

Luna Moth; Actias luna; a large (3-7″), lime-green, forest moth, with a single eye-spot on each fore-wing and hind-wing and long, soft tails that flies at night and rests by day. The leading edge of the fore-wing is a contrastive dark brown, with a line leading to the front set of eye-spots. Male moths have very large, feather like antennae with which to pick up the females’ pheromones, since she is not visible on dark nights. Females lay large clutches of eggs on the leaves of deciduous trees, including walnut and persimmons. A member of the silk-moth ilk, the large, green caterpillar lined with a row of black dots spins a cocoon of silk in which it metamorphs, emerging as moth with small, wrinkled wings which fill with fluid and harden in hours. The moth gets is name from the crescent shaped eye-spots on the front wing, known as lunae, not because it flies on moonlit nights (sorry to shatter the romance).

Luna Moth; a large, light green moth with eye-spots on each wing, a brown trim on the leading edge of the fore-wing, and long, soft tails on the trailing edge of the hind-wing.

Note; the long, slightly curled, soft tails.

Note; the round eye-spots on each hind-wing, and crescent shaped lunae on each fore-wing

Note; the male’s antennae are feather like.

Polyphemus Moth; Antheraea polyphemus; a large (6″ wingspan), furry, light brown silk moth with pinkish markings, and two eye-spots, the trailing edge of the wings bordered with dark line a pinkish tinge, and a broad tan trim. Each fore-wing has a small, bright yellow eye-spot with an elongated, transparent ‘cat-eye’ pupil, while each hind-wing has one large, elongated, black eye-spot with a yellow eye and a slanted, transparent pupil that appears black. The hind-wing is hidden under the fore-wing until the moth is disturbed. As it raises its wings the large eye opens, like an owl’s eyes. The female emits strong pheromones, which the male can detect with its large, feather like antennae, even on the darkest night. Common in forested areas and forests of urban trees, the moths are attracted to light, often found clinging to houses below night-lights. Females, whose antennae are thinner, lay loose clusters of round, yellow-white eggs that hatch into caterpillars that grow into large, soft bodied larva that feed indiscriminately on a wide variety of vegetation. The final molt of caterpillars crawls into the leaf litter where they metamorph inside a cocoon of silk threads.