Hangin' With A Luna Moth

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Can You Find the Luna Moth?

As I have raised my children, it has become clear that I missed out on a lot in high school. My son's favorite class was AP Biology and almost daily he would come home with a new story. Can you believe they even had a pet snake in class? And he touched it? Ugh!!!!

He has always been an avid "bug" watcher, not a collector mind you, that would require killing the bugs. No, he likes to watch them live and study them up close. He has taught me so much about insects and animals and I must say that what I used to totally ignore, I now find fascinating. He really is like a walking encyclopedia!

When we go to the zoo, we never run from animal to animal screeching. No, we stop at every enclosure and watch. "Watch what?" you ask. Well, that's just it. We just observe every detail, every movement, every stripe variation. We can easily spend an hour in the Herpetarium. So many frogs, so little time!

Several years ago, we made a trip to the zoo just to see the new Butterfly House. We crept thought it inch by inch discovering dozens of beautiful butterflies.

And that's where it happened! He spotted the elusive Luna Moth. How he saw him among all the leaves, I will never know, but you would have thought he had just been named a multi-million dollar lottery winner. He didn't make a sound, he just stared, unblinking while I saw nothing but leaves. I followed my son's eyes and finally, there, I saw the weird shaped "leaf".

See if you can find him in the picture above!

Now Can You See Him?

Incredible But True 

  • The Luna Moth's has a furry white body and green wings with eye spots on each of its four wings
  • The Luna Moth wing span is 3-4 inches wide
  • The Luna Moth has long, curvy Hindwings
  • The Luna Moth only flies at night
  • The Luna Moth never eats because he has no mouth
  • THe Luna Moth only lives for about 1 week
  • The Male Luna Moth has bushier antennae than the female
  • The Female Luna Moth can lay up to 200 eggs
  • They are now considered an endangered species in some areas

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    Luna Moth life cycle

    Watch a luna moth female calling a male with pheromones. This is one of 89 videos featured in our interactive educational science software entitled Backyard Bugs. Available at http://www.totallybuggin.com

    Runtime: 200
    39695 views
    24 Comments:

    curated content from YouTube

    Life Cycle of the Luna Moth 

    Luna Moth eggs are usually laid on the undersides of leaves. Seven to 14 days later the eggs hatch into caterpillars. Luna moth caterpillars are lime green with orange spots or stripes on their sides The caterpillars go through 5 growth stages shedding their exoskeletons (external skeletons) several times. The caterpillar eats the leaves of walnut, white birch, persimmon, hickory, sweet gum or sumac trees. The caterpillar then molts to a pupal stage and builds a brown, tent-like cocoon by spinning silk from near its mouth. It eventually emerges as a fully-grown adult but that can take several weeks. Because the Luna Moth does not have a mouth it lives off fat ingested in the last days of its caterpillar stage. It sole purpose in its final stage of life is to mate and reproduce. Because a Luna Moths life is so brief, it is rarely seen.

    Image from edis.ifas.ufl.edu/IN737

    Here He Is!

    Would you like to Hang with More Luna Moths? 

    Here are just a few ideas

    A Luna Moth's Life (Nature Upclose)

    Amazon Price: $6.95 (as of 11/27/2009) Buy Now

    Luna Moths (Insect World)

    Amazon Price: $8.95 (as of 11/27/2009) Buy Now

    Clearly Charming Luna Moth Silver and Enamel Pin

    Amazon Price: $36.99 (as of 11/27/2009) Buy Now

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    Tell Us About Your Luna Moth Sighting! 

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    • Reply
      Molly Molly Nov 12, 2009 @ 9:33 pm
      My son just ran in and told me he saw Eric Carle's caterpillar! Sure enough, there is a huge, green, luna moth caterpillar on the brick by the front porch. I'm not sure how it is going to fair in this spot, but we're leaving it alone ... and watching! :-)
    • Reply
      AndyPo AndyPo Nov 12, 2009 @ 4:03 am
      Very interesting lens
    • Reply
      Jewelsofawe Jewelsofawe Nov 1, 2009 @ 12:39 pm
      This was interesting and they are interesting looking. Don't know if I have ever seen one.
    • Reply
      HorseAndPony HorseAndPony Oct 17, 2009 @ 6:13 pm
      I have never seen a Luna Moth. It is beautiful. Thanks for sharing this info.
    • Reply
      CleanerLife CleanerLife Oct 15, 2009 @ 6:11 pm
      I found a Luna Moth sleeping under some raspberry leaves and took it's picture. I had no idea what it was until I saw this Lens, but it was so big, and blended so well with the leaves, I figured that there must be something special about it.

      The raspberry patch I saw it in was near a walnut tree, and I read on another site how walnut foliage is among the favorite food of the Luna Moth caterpillar. You can bet when next spring arrives, I'll be out with my camera looking for them!
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    Lensmaster Sylvestermouse has been a member since July 7 2009, has rated 1,298 lenses, favorited 319, and has created 73 lenses from scratch. Cynthia V. donates their royalties to National Wildlife Federation's Alaska Regional Center. This member's top-ranked page is "Spice Tea Recipe". See all my lenses

     

     

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