like a moth to a flame...

Good moro' my little Wizards!

Last week brought many correct assumptions that the photo-puzzler was of the moth family! But alas, no one could correctly identify the little fellow or fella ( I never bothered to ask, er check for sexual classification!) 
The nearest presumption at all was Staci from Mommas Gone Over the Wall, our winning Wizard from last week, with a guess of a Luna moth. Very close but, nope. 

Let's take a peek a the whole thing...

Isn't he (or she) handsome! Just hanging around on my dusty downstairs door. What a delight it was to come upon! Hubby spied it first and we both ran for cameras.

Do not look at the dust or spiders and their webs, they tend to be everywhere out here in the boonies. 

So what is this interesting creature called?

An Imperial Moth!

A large American moth with yellowish wings with purple markings.

Wing span: 3 1/8 - 6 7/8 inches (8 - 17.4 cm).

Caterpillar hosts: Conifers and deciduous trees and shrubs including pine, oak, box elder, maples, sweet gum, and sassafras. A subspecies pini feeds only on conifers. I have plenty of maples and pines, and with all the surrounding woods I think they have quite a choice for a delicious buffet everyday.

Adult food: Adults do not feed. (too busy looking for dates, pairing up, and you know the rest)

Habitat: Deciduous and evergreen forests.

Range: Maine west to eastern Nebraska, south to the Florida Keys and central Texas. Subspecies pini occurs across the northern Great Lakes basin and the northern third of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. 

Here is one of those nasty spider webs, we are not sure what our moth friend had in mind here, since adults do not eat I assume they do not attack spiders or eggs??

Maybe just testing some acrobatic skills? 

Talk about hanging on by a thread!

There is only one brood a year for the Imperial Moth. Adults emerge before sunrise and mate after midnight the next day (love flies fast into a burning flame!) Females lay large yellow eggs at dusk singly or in groups of 2-5 on both surfaces of host plant leaves. The eggs hatch in about 2 weeks. The day before they hatch, the egg turns from milky yellow to translucent white.
  
As caterpillars they are solitary feeders.  
(must be from all those one night stands!) 
sorry, I am full of groaners today...


The first incidence of instar generally lasts a few days.
An instar is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult, until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or assume a new form. The Imperial Moth caterpillar will sometimes eat the old exoskeleton for protein nutrition (yuck). They normally have five instars before they ready for the next chapter of their lives, to develop into a pupa.
 When these caterpillars are ready to pupate, they burrow underground.  They emerge next season as an adult.

In this instance they are somewhat like the 17 Year Cicadas I introduced you to earlier this year. It might explain why I find so many little holes in the ground during different times of the spring and summer. 
The big holes... well lets just say it could be any manner of beast!

Okay Wizards, before I leave you with next weeks consideration I thank you again for playing along! Mr. Linky will be below for those who like to follow and play the mid-week memes. Reading your comments and guesses are like little tastes of chocolate, once is never enough.

For next week ...

perhaps another??

 until next time . . .