Wild Hair Day

What am I looking at?

This is the caterpillar stage of a Chinese moon moth (Actias dubernardi). Click on the right arrow to see the pink and yellow coloration and unique wing shape of the adult moth.

Biology in the background

The Chinese moon moth lives all over China and spends most of its life as a caterpillar. It takes 70 to 85 days for one of these moths to mature from an egg to an adult, and then it has a lifespan as an adult of only 10 to 12 days. As a caterpillar, it lives and feeds on coniferous trees, preferably larches. It undergoes five larval stages, or instars, before it is mature enough to transform into a pupa, or chrysalis, by wrapping itself in a cocoon made of coarse brown silk (this moth belongs to the family Saturniidae, also known as giant silk moths). Inside the pupa, its metamorphosis into the imago stage takes place.

As adults, the females of the species secrete pheromones (sexual attractants) that appeal to male moths, which use their large antennae to follow the plume of the molecules. Once it has mated, a female can lay up to 120 eggs on any part of a pine tree. The conspicuous “fur” covering the body and parts of the wings of these moths serves as a form of acoustic camouflage – absorbing and scattering ultrasound waves emitted by hunting bats, blurring and muffling their echolocation signals. In addition, the “streamers” on the moth’s hind wings help deflect bird or bat attacks away from its body.

These caterpillars can grow up to 75 millimeters long, or roughly four times the size of a human pinky finger. And adult moths have wings up to 130 millimeters long, or almost twice the size of a human pinky finger.

Technique

This image was created using macrophotography.