ISSUE #06: Luna Moths Are the Pretty Tricksters Among North America’s Giants

If this post went up on a Saturday I could have called it Saturniidae Saturday.

The size of an insect is, more often than not, inversely proportional to the likelihood of us seeing it. That’s an annoying way of saying that the bigger a bug is, the more easily they hide, especially from those of us who don’t even know they’re there. 

Up in the treetops live giants: bodies thicker than your thumb and wingspans wider than your head. Among bug people, they’re known as members of Saturniidae, a family of moths that includes some of the largest in the world, including the impressive Atlas moth, the Hercules moth, and the North American giant silk moths. (If you’re wondering, the biggest moth in the world is the Central American white witch, by wingspan (12 inches), while the Hercules moth holds the title for wing surface area.) 

Today we’re talking giant silk moths, which belong to the subfamily Saturniinae (yes, it’s almost the same word, it’s not my fault). Though Saturniinae includes some of the biggest moths in the world, it’s likely you haven’t heard of or seen most of them. In North America, many of ours are dramatically named after Greek and Roman mythological figures. In the east, we have the Promethea silkmoth, whose females are a striking reddish brown and whose males are almost black. From Canada to the central U.S. and even down south in Florida lives the Io moth, whose males are bright yellow with huge black eyespots on their hindwings. Polyphemus moths are all over, huge and tan-colored, with pink and brown stripes and eyespots of purple and gray.