#Polyphemus Moth

[mikimuun]

bill gets reincarnated!

[onenicebugperday]

@curscival submitted: Saw this beautiful polyphemus moth a few months back <3

Wow! What a beautiful man. Must've been newly emerged since he is in pristine condition! Hope he successfully mated and made 8792834398240 babies :)

[crevicedwelling]

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)

[galacticnova3]

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

[thekeymonster]

Polyphemus Moth Kitten - Sketchbook

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

[swampwizards]

Moth party!

Polyphemus (right) and Cecropia (left)

[nemfrog]

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

Internet Archive

[ahedderick]

Random Moth Thursday

Whenever I see one of the really gorgeous ones, I try to get a photo as an artist's reference.

This Polyphemus decided to rest for the day right in the middle of a hiking trail. I was able to scoop him gently sideways to safer territory.

My daughter found this Cecropia just after it died.

I found the Luna wings above in the grass when I went out for early morning cow-milking chores. Either a bat or a screech owl much have caught and eaten the moth so neatly that the wings just fell to the ground in perfect condition. The second one had j-u-s-t come out of its cocoon, and was very chunky and confused.

I don't know its name, but it's certainly cute!

Not a good artist reference photo, but still beloved. Hummingbird moths (a type of sphinx moth) look for all the world like crayfish with wings.

[robotbodies]

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

[coolbugs]

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?)

[thegorgonist]

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

[onenicebugperday]

@soyboytwerp submitted: Found this pretty thing years ago during one of my brothers birthday! It was around midnight August in [removed] (Please remove location <3)

Poor thing flew into the water slide we rented and got stunned. Managed to get it on the recycling bin and got this beautiful picture. It was a lot bigger than my hand but I have pretty small hands-

What a beauty! This friend is a polyphemus moth. Glad he was okay after the water slide collision :)

[inkteresting-art]

Man I'm lucky, found this pretty beast on a Shoppers Drug Mart. @onenicebugperday here since you like buggies ^^

[nosferatil]

Polyphemus Moth !

[podurae]

caterpillar rancher

[kickshaw5]

My Polyphemus moth hatched yesterday!

I named her Amelia because the first time I tried to release her she crash-landed in the road and almost got hit by a car.