Luna Moth (Actias luna) Chloe finds a rare Luna Moth!!!

Luna Moth (Actias luna)

With a wingspan of between 3.5-4 inches (8.9-10.1 cm) luna moths are the largest moths in North America.

They are pale green moths that have four eye spots - one on each of their four wings. Their bodies are furry and white.
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Luna moths are nocturnal and so they aren't as commonly encountered as butterflies.
However, when luna moths are encountered they are hard to miss because of their large size.

Adult luna moths only live for about seven days. One interesting characteristic of these moths is that the adult moths don't feed. In fact, they don't even have mouths. Unfortunately, they usually die shortly after mating and/or laying eggs.

Female luna moths can lay a few hundred brownish colored eggs. They usually lay their eggs on the leaves of one of their larval stage host plants: persimmon, sweetgum, walnut, and hickory. The eggs hatch in about a week and a half and the small caterpillars begin eating the leaves of the host plant.


Luna moth caterpillars are green. When they first hatch the caterpillars are very tiny. As they feed on the leaves of their host plant, they grow and molt five times in stages called instars. At the end of the fifth instar they form brownish paper-like cocoons.The moth overwinters in the cocoon and emerges as an adult moth in the spring.

When the moth first emerges from its cocoon, its wings are shriveled and wet. The moth pumps fluid into its wings to expand them and then rests until its wings are dry.

Once its wings are dry the adult luna moth goes in search of a mate.

The adult female luna moth releases a pheromone to attract a male. The antennae of the male luna moth is larger than the female's, which enables him to find the female. They mate and then the luna moth life cycle begins again.See More

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• rare
• Luna
• Moth
• (Actias
• luna)

[Mom2AmyandKaycie]

Beautiful! But at this stage they only live about 1-2 weeks. They emerge from the cocoon only to breed and then they die. I am in Atlantic Canada. I found the caterpillar last fall and he has over wintered, Just today I could feel it moving inside his cocoon. I hope he does not emerge just yet. It's still chilly here.

Did she find it as a moth or did it cocoon with you?

[senorwhiskers]

@Mom2AmyandKaycie Thanks :) Yea she actually found it as a moth at my father in law's farm. After the video we just let go. I live in Erie, Pa and we have a state park on an arching sandy peninsula. I've seen all kinds of weird bugs there but I've never seen a butterfly as big as the luna moth before. You should try to catch a video of that butterfly as it hatches.

[Kgmh12]

Its in intinae. The females have there's less thick in hairs.

[Kgmh12]

It's male too. You can tell by int

[KixyBoo]

This has got to be one of the cutest video's on youtube, absolutely adorable and what a beautiful moth, that little girl is so sweet I love this video (: