This Rosy Maple Moth turned up under an indoor light last week in the NC mountains. My friend Sonia pointed out the resemblance to Trump – ha ha! A gorgeous moth, in spite of that. It’s in the family Saturniidae, and none of the adult moths in this family have the body parts for feeding, so they can’t eat. The adults live only a few days — just long enough to mate and lay eggs. Then they die. The caterpillars that hatch from the eggs do eat and grow of course. I never see the beautiful big moths in this family in the city anymore, too many pesticides and mosquito sprayers. But still to be found in more rural places. And the too-steep-for-building slopes in the mountains are mostly still rural. Yay!
