Hangin' With the Luna Moth
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Can You Find the Luna Moth?
I had never seen a Luna Moth before my son pointed one out to me. That was one of the moments when 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!

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?
Who has the Monopoly on Luna Moths?
Incredible But True

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
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Tell Us About Your Luna Moth Sighting!
Thie beauty featured below was captured on camera by one of my friends and one of Squidoo's very own writers!

Luna Moth by mbgphoto
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jadehorseshoe
Dec 23, 2011 @ 8:07 pm | delete
- Another Pretty Lens!
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mbgphoto
Nov 5, 2011 @ 6:49 pm | delete
- Thanks for featuring my Luna moth photo!
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mbgphoto
Oct 4, 2011 @ 1:42 pm | delete
- We have Luna moths at The Butterfly House where I volunteer so I've seen several of them there. I think they are elegant looking moths. Blessed
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Patty
Jul 29, 2011 @ 3:13 pm | delete
- Sorry! I forgot to add that I'm from New Jersey--and I think it's a pretty rare occurrence for my area to see one of these amazing creatures!
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Patty
Jul 29, 2011 @ 3:09 pm | delete
- Earlly this morning (around 3 am), I had one fly right into my condo!! I took some really awesome pictures of it and didn't want to hurt it, so I turned the light off in the room and gently coaxed it back out the screen door. It was truly amazing! I'd love to post pics of it, but don't know how!
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