Reminder That One Of The Og Moth Ocs Was Killer Moth, A Flamboyant Batman Villain Who Saw An Article

Reminder that one of the og moth ocs was killer moth, a flamboyant batman villain who saw an article about batman in prison and decided to become his nemesis (if that isn't a little fruity idk what is). Also he had a mothmobile with antennae on the front and a cocoon gun which he used to wrap up his enemies

Top tier character design tbh.

Image sources: wikipedia and DC database

Moths?

Moths? Moths. Moths moths moths :)

Honourary non-moth post: the peanut-head lanternfly

Sometimes mistakenly called the peanut-head moth, these little fellas are part of the order Hemiptera (true bugs) family Fulgoridae (fulgorid planthoppers).

"But why," you may ask, "are they called peanut-heads?" Let me show you.

Goofy fella #1

Goofy fella #2

These ridiculous false heads are shared by both males and females, so it's not a result of sexual selection. It's theorized that it's to avoid them getting their actual heads bitten off, which if you look at a closeup, is behind the false one:

Oh and btw. Even though they're called lanternflies they don't actually glow in the dark. And Costa Ricans believe they're poisonous and if you get bitten by them you have to have sex at least within the next 24 hours, and by some accounts, immediately.

They are distributed across tropical Mexico, Central and South America. And yeah they're just really strange and cool.

If you live in the uk and want to identify a moth you saw, or if you don't but just want to appreciate some cool uk moths, this site is for you

It lets you enter country, size, colour and any special features of the moth you want to find

^ a little fella I found while looking around on it (merveille du jour)

Is the atlas moth really the biggest moth out there? (spoiler alert: there are different ways of measuring 'big')

Largest by wingspan - the white witch moth:

Wingspan: around 30 cm max

Fun fact: despite its large size the eggs, pupa and caterpillars of this moth remain undocumented. Check out the white witch watch for more info.

Largest by wing area - the female hercules moth:

Wing surface area: 300 square cm

Largest by weight - the female giant wood moth:

Weight: 30 g max

Largest overall - the female atlas moth:

Wingspan: largest recorded 30 cm

Wing area: 157 square cm, according to this site, which doesn't cite any source for that info

Although it's listed in the guiness book of world records as the largest moth, I'm confused as to why that is. The wingspan of the white witch moth is bigger, and the wingspan of the hercules moth is bigger, according to Insect Biodiversity: Science and Society by Robert G. Foottit and Peter H. Adler. The wing surface area of the hercules moth is also bigger according to Amazing Numbers in Biology by Rainier Flindt.

Note on conflicting information: Many of the general use sites I happened upon while trying to find sources closer to the primary source incorrectly quoted this article, sometimes saying Attacus caesar has the second largest wingspan of all moths, and sometimes incorrectly quoting the atlas' moth wingspan as 24 cm or 27 cm when it was 262 mm/26.2 cm in the original article. In my opinion, the atlas moth can't rightfully be called the largest overall moth, but it does hold the record, with the largest wingspan recorded being 30 cm (in the guiness world record).

Image sources:

[1] [2] [3] [4]

Information sources:

White witch wingspan

Hercules moth wing surface area and wingspan

Giant wood moth weight

Atlas moth

Saturniid Moths

(aka those moths with the eyes)

Moths from the Saturniidae family are probably the most well known moth species around. This family has approximately 1500 species distributed worldwide, although they're more common in tropical areas. They have these fake eyes that they don't display when at rest, but when disturbed, they flap their wings, displaying eyes made to mimic owl or snake eyes, and that gives them enough time to escape their predators. These eyes are easily their most recognizable feature. They also have very large wings, the largest saturniid has a wingspan of up to 30 cm (but we'll talk about that later). They are mostly nocturnal, and easily attracted to light, although some are diurnal. Adults cannot eat because their mouthparts don't function. In some places, their caterpillars (like the mopane worm) are eaten.

Check out this interesting diagram of Saturniidae moth sizes in Indiana. It should give a general idea of how big most Saturniidae are.

Some iconic saturniids include:

The Io moth (Automeris io)

These guys are sexually dimorphic, the male is the yellow one the female is the brown one above it. They have unusually large eyespots even for saturniids. They are distributed across Canada, the US and Mexico.

The Luna moth (Actias luna)

Pictured here is a male luna moth, luna moths are sexually dimorphic and the females look similar although more triangular in shape. Fun fact: the 'tails' on their wings are there to help reduce predation as bats will chomp on them instead of, for example, a main part of their wing which may prevent them from flying and/or enable the bat to have better grip on them and just eat them. Distributed across the US and Canada.

The Atlas moth (Attacus atlas)

As you can see, these guys are pretty big. Their wingspan can be up to 30 cm wide. Fun fact: their cocoons are so strong they are sometimes used as purses. Distributed across China, India, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Hercules moth (Coscinocera hercules)

VERY VERY BIG. The females have the biggest wing surface area (300 square cm) of all extant insects. They have a rather large wingspan as well, around 27 cm. The caterpillars can sometimes take more than a year to metamorphose. Native to Northern Australia and New Guinea.

Sources:

Saturniid moth

Family saturniidae

Cool study on moth diversity in Mexico

Io moth

Luna moth

Largest moth

Spotlight: the atlas moth

Hercules moth

Moths with larger hindwings and longer tails are best at deflecting bats (very interesting read)

Image creds:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]