Big Luna Moth

[GoDawgs]

Last night Pickles noticed a big Luna moth plastered against one of the back door windows so I was able to get a pic of both upper and lower sides. Although the underside pic was taken through the glass it still came out pretty good without a flash. Interesting face on the moth!

[Setec Astronomy]

Where's Dr. Doolittle?

[brownrexx]

I don't see them often but they are so pretty!

[Labradors]

Beautiful .

Linda

[MissS]

He is gorgeous. My daughter raised the giant moths for several years. We had a lot of these. This one is a male. You can tell by the large feathery anthers. The females have much thinner ones.

[PlainJane]

Great find!

[worth1]

I bet they communicate with aliens.

[GoDawgs]

I had to the Luna up just to get more information on it. What a shock to learn that they only live about a week after emerging from the cocoon, just enough time to mate and die. Wikipedia had photos of both male and female. It also said those big antennaeon the males can detect the female's pheromones up to 2-3 miles away!

They are tree dwelling, feeding on mainly walnut, hickory, sweet gum and paper birch. We have both sweet gum and black walnut on the property. The larvae stay on the trees where they were hatched until they go to the ground to make a cocoon. After they emerge they will fly back up to their tree and await a mate.

[MissS]

The moths themselves never feed. They emerge from their cocoon without a mouth. The male usually dies withing 12-14 hours of mating. The female will survive for about a week until all of her eggs have been deposited.

[JRinPA]

Don't see too many around here anymore. Too much development. I have seen the most up in the Poconos. I am surprised they are all the way down in Georgia, I just thought of them as a northern moth, I guess.