When I walked out of my house early this morning, I was thrilled to see something that I had never seen in real life before…a Luna Moth! Luna Moths are not rare, but are rarely seen by humans. This is due to their very brief (7–10 day) adult lives and nocturnal flying time. As with all giant silk moths, the adults only have vestigial mouthparts and no digestive system and therefore do not eat in their adult form, instead relying on energy they stored up as caterpillars.
Found only in North America, Luna Moth caterpillars constantly munch on the leaves of walnut, hickory, sweet gum, and paper birch trees. After about a month of filling up, the caterpillar builds a cocoon and approx. 3 weeks later emerges as a moth.
Luna Moths are a favorite snack for bats, so as a defense mechanism they spin the “tails” on the wingtips of their impressive 3-4.5 inches wingspans in circles, which disorients the bats so much that the moths are often able to make a getaway. It is actually thought that it confuses bat’s finely tuned echolocation detection!
In speaking to our wonderful Education Staff, they informed me that the reason it was sitting on the side of the house during the day is likely because it was at the end of its life cycle and had was running out of energy to fly. It was gone when I checked back a little later so either it made it back to the woods, or was picked up by a hungry bird.
I was curious what the Luna Moth represents or symbolize and found that most commonly across cultures, they symbolizes rebirth, change, transformation, resurrection, and power of regeneration. I was also glad to read that in some cultures, If you see one when the sun is still up, you should consider yourself lucky as spotting one during day time is believed to be an indicator of luck- hopefully the good kind! #NationalMothWeek
-By Joanna Marvel