This beauty showed-up last night just before midnight. According to Audubon, it's an Imperial moth (Eacles imperialis), a pretty common member of the giant silkmoth family.It's about the same size as the Vine sphynx moth I wrote about earlier.
Some adult moths, such as sphynx moths, drink nectar. This one, in its adult stage, has only vestigal mouth parts and no digestive tract.
Males use their broad antennae to scent pheremones emitted by the females (sometimes a mile or more away). The adults breed, the females lay eggs on the underside of leaves, and then they die. It all happens in about a week.
Imperial moths, so-called for the purple splotches on their wings, are one of about 1,500 described species of the family Saturniidae. They're considered common below the Mason-Dixon line.TPWD's invertebrate biologist, Mike Quinn, recently posted a photo of an almost identical moth at BugGuide.net.
It might be time to get a visible ultraviolet bulb -- a "blacklight" -- and sheet and hang 'em in the back yard. No telling what else might show-up.
