Mysticmothworld - Moths Are Cool

Looks like either a Promethea Silk or a Tulip-tree Silk moth. Either way it's female because the males of both species are darker. These species are easily confused, but try check the top side of the wings for white spots on the forewings - if they're small or nonexistent it's probably a promethea moth (probably, not guaranteed bc you have to take a number of things into account).

This article might help tell the difference:

indiananature.net

(Callosamia)

Information and range maps about the (Callosamia) in Indiana

So does anyone know what kind of moth this is? I found it dead in my garage this morning so I decided that I'd mount it. I looked up the steps to mount a bug for display purposes and right now he's in a relaxation chamber to make sure he's limber for positioning later this week.

But I'd like to know it's proper breed to label him correctly.

The Banksia Moth, or Psalidotestha banksiae, is a beauty and I'm not sure the illustration does it justice. As well as being slightly inaccurate, the metallic scales of the live moth either weren't drawn or faded over time. This is probably because a pinned specimen was used as a reference, or perhaps even a written description. I'm not sure. Anyways, it resulted in some understandable confusion.

But let me show you some pictures of the real thing:

Super cool right!!! As you can see, it's very similar to the illustrations, the main differences being the details. I'm sure it's a Banksia moth because I found the book the drawing came from, and the caterpillar and top right moth were described as Danima banksiae (its old scientific name). I also know it's a female because males have white hindwings, which I found out using my trusty Australian lepidoptera site :)

Exotic moths - James Duncan- 1852 - via Internet Archive

Drawing Bugs I've photographed! (1)

Bicolored Sallow, Sunira bicolorago. Family Noctuidae

A thing I learned about caterpillars when being like "hey that's too many legs" is that they really only have six legs, which makes sense, they're insects of course. Their true legs can usually (maybe always) be found at the front of their body. The rest of their 'legs', are called prolegs or false legs. These prolegs are little nubs with grips on the bottom to aid in movement. They're usually found all along the caterpillars abdomen but in the case of inchworms, geometer moth caterpillars, they're prolegs are only located at the back of their body, giving them their distinct inch walk :)