Found a Luna Moth!

This post is a bit old, but I attended a field trip with my ENTO 301 class to Bouton lake where I finally caught a Luna Moth! I've been seeking one of these all semester and unfortunately do not have any high quality photos right now, so stock images will have to suffice.

The specimen I caught was in very decent condition, with a very light tattering near the edges of the wings but not in a matter that decreased from the beauty of the specimen.

Throughout this semester I've been seeking a Luna moth which belongs to the family Saturniidae. These moths are very well known for a variety of TV commercials as well as cultural references. In addition to this they are often considered to be some of the most beautiful moths in existence.

These moths are typically nocturnal so the best chance of catching them will be at night. In the case of my specimen, I was standing around a light sheet set up about 50 feet away from the Bouton lake. Around midnight was when the moth came by, and these are very easy to notice by the sound of their wings. Saturniidae moth's have very large wings as as such have a characteristic sound similar to a car or motorcycle idling in the distance. Once I heard the wings I kept an eye out until I eventually found it on a tree branch. The moth was about 30 feet in the air and indicated no signs of coming closer to the light. Eventually I tossed a stick up towards the branch to spook the moth which caused it to depart and head for the light. At this point I had my net ready and snatched it out of the air. I placed it inside of a sandwich bag to keep the wings from getting damaged until I was able to pin and spread it.

Before this moth, I had never spread such a large insect and as such was somewhat nervous which led me to ask one of my classmates that was experienced in spreading Lepidopterans to assist me.

I used the spreading board supplied by the class. I had frozen the moth while it was fresh so that when it thawed the wings were still pliable. First I pinned the Luna in the right side of the thoracic region and stuck it in the recess of the spreading board. Once placed, I used pins to gently manipulate the forewings into an elevated position such as found in this Luna.

Once properly oriented, I used strips of paper and laid them over the wings pinning them on both ends to keep the entire wing flat. Once the forewings were placed and pinned I manipulated the hind wings to a similar position as in the previous photo. I paid extra care to the prolongations on the hindwings as I personally feel like these are on characteristic that are very identifiable with this moth. After letting the moth dry for a week, I was incredibly happy with the results. After my collection has been processed, I plan on taking my Luna and framing it to put on the wall in my house.

From class I had heard that light fades the wings of this beautiful moth to a heavy extent, and if this turns out to be the case, it will just have to serve as an excuse to collect more.