April 22nd, 2015. Sighting
a Luna Moth (Actias luna) while walking from the Group Shelter A to the Old
Fort was a bonus. It’s unusual to find Luna moths in
the Spring. They are much more common in the Fall so this was a lucky sighting.
I found this moth just before noon. It’s unusual to find a
moth on the ground. When they emerge from the cocoon, their wings are small.
They pump fluid through them to enlarge them. They usually crawl to a nearby
bush or tree and climb up a foot or two and hang their while their wings harden
and they excrete the exceed fluid from their bodies.
The wings on this moth, a female, were already enlarged when
I found her and she had excreted much of the excess fluid. She was flopping
around and in danger of ending up on the trail. I picked her up carefully and
carried her a few yards along the trail, and then climbed the hillside and
placed her on the leaf litter near some trees. When I came back by this spot on
the trail about an hour-and-a-half later, she was no longer on the leaf litter.
I climbed the hill and found that she had made her way to a
nearby tree and climbed to about a foot off the ground. She would probably stay there until nightfall
when she would fly off in search of a mate.
This moth was a female. It’s easy to differentiate between
the male and female moth by the size and structure of the antennae. The
antennae of the male are slightly larger and more complex that those of the female.
I've been lucky enough to have found five Luna Moths in the woods in the last few years but I never tire of finding them.
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