A large polyphemus moth! They're very well known in north america because theyre one of the largest in that area :) THE ANTENNAE ARE SO FLUFFY AHHHHH!! LOOK AT EM!!! Gosh i love moth antennae they just activate something in my monkey brain for how cute they look.

Fun fact about polyphemus moths, when they feel threatened they lay down on the ground and just occasionally flop to mimic a leaf flopping in the wind as their defense mechanism :)

My Little Book of Bugs. Written by Maida Silverman. Illustrated by Rosiland Solomon. 1993.

Day 19: the worms are molting again! They are molting way earlier than last time. It took them nine days to molt but now it’s only taken then a week! Five of them have started and the rest are still munching away. Nothing much to report today!

Fluffy rearing

I found a lovely Polyphemus moth sitting at trampling height in a busy area, so I brought him inside to wait for nightfall.

he has so many wonderful textures to share!

he also has an adorable face…

and utterly magnificent antennae!

(Antheraea polyphemus)

Since she has now flown off I am obligated to post the order of potato fairy extra large that I looked after for several days. Aka a gloriously chumby Polyphemus moth— the second one I’ve seen alive in over a decade— that decided to hang around our porch for most of its adult life. I saw the first live one on the same day, but he flew away when I tried to get close. But still, that’s a great sign that their population in my area is finally starting to recover! Anyways, here’s the wonderful big little creacher where I found her, which should probably make it clear as to why I moved her. Ants don’t mess around and I wasn’t gonna just leave her inches away from danger.

I was pretty glad I did, as even after her wings were fully dried and extended and everything she couldn’t actually take off. See: her first “flight”.

Big fan of the loud impact PLAP sound, really added to the already very good demonstration of gravity. Worry not, she was totally fine afterwards. Here she is that night and the day after! Very cute and fuzzy, 1000/10.

The next day I thought she had flown off, but then the day after that she was back on the porch! I could tell she was the same one because of her damaged antenna. She started laying eggs on the house and I realized that wasn’t going to be good for the caterpillars that might hatch, since it was a relatively long distance to any host plants even without including the vertical climb to reach branches of leaves. Since she clearly felt safe where she was, and I was also worried about ants and birds and possible insecticides, I ended up making a little “baby box” for her out of a thoroughly rinsed plastic container that initially held salted honey-roasted peanuts. I gave her a stick to hold on to which also gave her a route to climb out of the box if she wished, and provided various fresh oak leaves to lay her eggs on. Figured it would be a good setup because I could easily move it to a safe place once she was done, and keep an eye on the eggs until they hatched. I might even try to raise a few caterpillars if the eggs are fertile. However, during the process of me setting that whole deal up, she decided I looked like a good egg laying spot.

You can see the “glue” that sticks the eggs to surfaces! It was cool to see up close: she’d lay an egg, wait for it to dry, and then lay the next right by it. She ended up sticking four on me before I was able to gently nudge her to the egg laying box. The stick was eventually deemed an acceptable substitute, and over night she… made an egg stalactite of sorts on it? Very weird, I think, I dunno; most of what I read online said their eggs would be laid in spread out clusters of two to three on suitable host plants. I know it wasn’t because she couldn’t get out, as when I went to check on her she had already made her way to the top of the stick and was hanging off of it outside the box. I didn’t think to take a picture of that as I needed to drive to college, but source: dude trust me. Here’s a picture of the egg sculpture I took when I got home.

When I was done with that I went to move her off the porch where she had been staying safe for the last 5 or so days to the more wooded area of the yard, but she ended up flying off to the treetops on her own after I brought her into the open. I guess laying a bunch of eggs made her finally light enough to fly. Maybe she was feeling upset at me for not being able to pay child support and making her lay her eggs on a stick instead? Or she was just doing normal moth things or whatever. It was bittersweet to watch her go, but I’m glad she had the chance to soar the skies at least once before her time was up.

@onenicebugperday

Polyphemus Moth Kitten - Sketchbook

.

If you’d like to see the full sketch and many more uncropped and unwatermarked illustrations, I’m on Patreon!

Polyphemus moth and cocoon. The Nature-study review. 1910.

Internet Archive

some favourite invertebrates i made when i worked as a stained glass artist

first polyphemus moth came out of her cocoon last night :)

Andy (e******[email protected]) submitted: No ID needed, just very proud of this polyphemus moth pic I got. Thought she was weak so I made some sugar water, but eventually she did fly out of sight

A beauty! A fun fact about polyphemus moths, and all Saturniids, is that the adult moths do not eat! Their adult form is strictly for reproducing and they do not live long - usually a week or less. As adults they live only on the energy stored from when they were fat caterpillars :)

   A drawing that I no longer exhibit in art shows, because too many people asked me if it was real, and more than one confidently called it a chipmunk. So. This is a flying squirrel that I drew with moth wings because I thought it was funny. Also, moth wings look good on absolutely everyone. Think of is as a squirrel fairy. A fairydiddle. A flying HAR HAR *wink* squirrel. It was funny in my head.

Elements of Zoölogy: A Text-book. Written by Sanborn Tenney. 1875.

Internet Archive

Day 15: OMG!! ok so I was checking in on the moths, and I caught one mode molt! What exciting about that is that I got to see him pop is head off! Remember how I talked about that yellow spot in the back of their head? THATS THEIR NEW HEAD!! the skin right there splits open to reveal the head, so cool! I got a blurry photo of theirs happening in the second picture. When his head cap popped off, his face was a ghostly white opposed to a dark bark color, which is even more cool to see! The worms are a lot more aggressive! I used to be able to pick them up and touch their backs but now the throw you off and will squirt water on you! I think it’s teenage angst. They hate to be touched now so I’ve been leaving them alone as to not stress them. Their grip has also gotten crazy strong! Like you can make a chain of leaves if you put a caterpillar in between them to hold them together. In their new form, you can really see everything a lot better, including their true legs (which look like peg legs). They lost their black stripes and they are now yellow stripes, their hair is longer by their face almost acting as a shield. I also concluded that they shed their hairs off and don’t keep them as they go. I changed them over to oak completely and they have taken to it just fine, they eat a ton now so I’ll have to add more leaves to feeding time.

Here is a comparison of the second instar head cap (left) and the first instar head cap (right). The second one is so much hairer and larger. I think it’s cool to see

Big update! Thanks for reading!

Bug of the Day

I remember this night. This night was a good night.

(Polyphemus moth, Antheraea polyphemus - there are at least 4 insect orders in this photo, can you spot them all?)

Days 8 and 9, almost caught up! The Footman Moth and Polyphemus moth, two stunners (one small and one quite big.)