The amazing cecropia moth
Dave Brumfield, Interpretive Naturalist
If you’re like me, you might have grown up thinking of moths as small drab insects that get into your flour or eat holes in clothes. Nothing could be further from the truth! Moths belong to the order of insects called Lepidoptera, same as butterflies. Although not as popular, moths can be just as attractive as their daytime flying counterparts.
One of my favorites is the cecropia moth. Its beautiful colors, including red, brown, black, white and orange and intricate patterns are anything but drab. Observing one in nature is always a “WOW” moment for me. Hopefully, after reading this blog post you will have a better understanding and appreciation for not only the cecropia, but all moths in general.
The cecropia (Hyalophora cecropia), one of the giant silkworm moths, is the largest in North America. Can you imagine holding a moth with a wingspan measuring five to six inches? That’s as big as my hand!
The sole purpose of the cecropia moth’s adult stage is to mate and lay eggs. Cecropia moths rely on the fat reserves from their caterpillar days to survive adulthood. In fact, they only live a few weeks and lack the mouthparts to eat at all!
Females have a larger body shape and small antennae compared to the male’s large, feathery antenna and smaller body. At night, she releases chemicals called pheromones to attract a mate. Males have a very keen sense of smell. Their antennae are designed with special receptors that can sense the pheromones of a female up to one mile away. Now, that’s amazing! Can you imagine smelling perfume from a mile away?
After mating, the female lays up to one hundred eggs on the underside of leaves from various host plants including cherry, maple, apple, ash, beech and oak trees (to name a few). Eggs will hatch in about 10 to 14 days, but most of the larva will not survive to adulthood because caterpillars are an important food source for birds, spiders and other predators.
As the caterpillars begin to feed on their food of choice, they grow…and grow…and grow! It reminds me of my kids when they were teenagers. A cecropia caterpillar’s skin doesn’t grow, though. When a caterpillar becomes so large that its skin is stretched to the limit, it will shed its skin through a process called molting.
The stages of a caterpillar’s life between molts are referred to as instars. As caterpillars go through a series of successive molts, not only do they increase in size but also change in color from black to yellow to green. By the end of the summer the caterpillars will have reached their fifth and final instar. They are now over four inches long and look like a small, green sausage that has been stuck with black-spiked push pins. It is one strange-looking caterpillar! If you ever get a chance to raise one, it is a great learning experience for the whole family.
As summer comes to an end, the caterpillar is ready to spin a cocoon. The cocoons are brownish-gray and attached lengthwise along a stem or branch of the host plant or another nearby plant. Inside the cocoon the caterpillar will pupate and prepare itself for a long Ohio winter. During this time, one of the most amazing transformations in nature happens as the pupae changes into an adult! If all goes well, by late May into June of next year a cecropia moth will emerge from its cocoon and the cycle starts all over again! Who knows, maybe someday you will find one and have your own “WOW” experience!
Special thanks and recognition to our friend and colleague Dave Brumfield for this post, his final one following many years of dedicated service to Summit Metro Parks. Enjoy the next phase of your retirement, Dave!
