Luna Moth
Actias luna
A pale-green moth trailing long tails
The luna moth is a large North American silkmoth with pale-green wings, transparent eyespots and two long, elegant tails on the hindwings. The adult has no mouthparts and lives only about a week, its sole task being to mate and lay eggs.
Key figures
- Wingspan
- About 8–11 cm
- Lifespan
- Adults do not feed and live only about a week
- Life cycle
- Egg, larva, pupa, adult, with 1–3 generations a year
- Habitat
- Deciduous forests of eastern North America
- Diet
- Larvae eat walnut, birch and other leaves; adults do not feed
- Feature
- Pale-green wings with transparent eyespots and long hindwing tails
Life cycle
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
Ecological role
The larvae feed on many deciduous trees, making them important herbivores in the forest food chain.
Did you know
Adult luna moths have no mouth and cannot eat — their one-week life runs entirely on energy stored as larvae.
Range
Eastern North America
Status
Fairly common
Anatomy
- Eyespot — Transparent eyespots that flash like open eyes to startle predators
- Antenna — The male's feathery antennae detect the female's pheromones
- Forewing — Pale green with a darker leading edge, like a leaf at rest
- Hindwing — The two long tails confuse the echolocation of bats
- Thorax — Densely fuzzy, warming its flight muscles by shivering before flight
- Abdomen — The female releases pheromones from the tip to attract males
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