Cecropia Moth Blending In
by Kathy White
Title
Cecropia Moth Blending In
Artist
Kathy White
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
The Cecropia Moth is the largest of the North American moths with a wing spread of five to seven inches. Its overall color is various shades of brown, but there is a conspicuous white mark near the center of each wing. There is a dark eye spot and a tinge of lavender near the tip of the front wing. The moths make their seasonal appearance in early summer and lay their eggs. They are often found at lighted windows at night. The royal or regal moths and the giant silk moths belong to the family Saturniidae and are also called Saturnid moths.
The caterpillars take most of the summer to mature and are up to four inches long when fully developed. They are bluish green, and along the back there is a pair of yellow projections on each body segment. The first three pairs of tubercles are more conspicuous and are in the form of yellow balls with black spines. The cecropia caterpillars feed mainly on cherry, plum, apple, elderberry, box elder, maple, birch and willow, but will also feed on linden, elm, sassafras and lilac.
In early fall the mature caterpillar spines a spindle-shaped cocoon which is about three inches long. The cocoon is attached along its full length to a twig on the host tree. Inside the cocoon the caterpillar changes to a pupa, the life stage in which it spends the winter.
This photograph was taken by my husband David. David saw this beautiful moth in the parking lot at his workplace in Kilgore, Texas. He thought it was unusually pretty and large, so he grabbed his camera to get a couple of shots of it. I really liked the photograph, myself, because of the beautiful moth, but also because of the way it blended with the gravel and rocks from the parking lot.
Because of their large size and sometimes striking colors and shapes, they attract a lot of attention when they are encountered, even among people who have no special interest in entomology. Also because the moths are rarely abundant, they are hardly ever taken for granted when one announces its presence by fluttering against a window at night.
Uploaded
January 9th, 2013
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