Luna Moth

The luna moth is a large, pale green silk moth native to forests across eastern North America, instantly recognizable by its long, trailing hindwing tails and delicate, ghostly lime-green wings that can span up to eleven centimetres, among the most striking of any North American moth. Like other giant silk moths, the adult luna moth has no functional mouthparts and does not feed at all, living for only about a week after emerging from its cocoon, a brief adult life devoted entirely to finding a mate and, for females, laying eggs before its stored energy reserves are exhausted. Its caterpillars feed on the leaves of trees such as walnut, hickory, sweetgum and birch, spinning a papery cocoon among leaf litter on the ground before emerging as an adult, typically at night, when the moth is most active and most likely to encounter one of the several bat species that prey on it, against which its trailing hindwing tails are thought to help deflect echolocation-guided attacks. Once considered common across its range, luna moth populations have declined in some areas due to light pollution disrupting mating behavior and pesticide use affecting its caterpillar food plants.