The Great Polyphemus Moth Rescue

I had an early afternoon meeting on campus, so I was leaving my building at work shortly after noon and heading for my car, when I saw a large, brown, furry creature - about as big as my hand - lying in the parking lot. In stopping and looking closer, I saw that it was a huge moth. Wow! How marvelous!

The bug was very large and very beautiful, with extremely feathery antennae and a rather small body. Somehow, at the time, the word running through my head was Cecropia. But I looked it up later and compared the photos I took with some online pictures (my camera being one very important tool in my ongoing investigation of the natural world) and it turns out that this is a polyphemus moth instead.

It was moving just a little bit, but not looking too perky. It wasn't in a very good location. The temperature of the pavement seemed way too hot, and I worried that the moth would get run over if it didn't move soon. So I put down my daysack and my camera in the parking lot, quickly took some pictures, and then used a piece of paper and my purple neoprene cooler to pick the moth up and move it to a safer location, under a nearby forsythia bush in the shade. Once there, it began to act a bit livelier. It walked all over my purple cooler and waved its feathery antennae around.

Other than the one chomp taken out of its left rear wing, the moth seemed to my visual inspection to be unharmed. I had high hopes for its recovery. Just to be sure it was OK, the next morning, I went back and checked the spot where I had left it, and discovered the bug was not there. Good! So I was (and am) hopeful that from there, it recovered from its torpor and went about its regular daily moth activities.

I consulted some Internet sources and found fascinating information about this bug. Two of the things that I learned are that the adult moth only lives about four days, and that it has reduced mouth parts and does not eat. Essentially, the purpose of the adult moth is reproduction, and I read that polyphemus moths generally mate on the same day that they emerge from the cocoon, usually in late afternoon.

I also learned that the male polyphemus moths have a smaller body and more feathery antennae than the female. The purpose of the amazing antennae is to help the male moth detect female moth pheromones. From this information, I deduced this one to be a male, and a fine specimen indeed.

I hope this moth had an opportunity to go on about its normal moth business, and it sounds like that might just include the continuation of the species via searching out and mating with a female moth. (One hopes she is just as lovely and well dressed as the male!) So the song to accompany this photo of the polyphemus moth is a paean to summer afternoon romance: the Starland Vocal Band, with Afternoon Delight.