Caterpillars feed on leaves of broad-leaved trees and shrubs such as sweetgum (Liquidambar), birch (Betula), grape (Vitis), hickory (Carya), maple (Acer), oak (Quercus), willow (Salix), and members of the rose family (Rosaceae). Larvae also eat their egg shells after hatching and their freshly molted skin. A caterpillar eats 86,000 times its body weight. Adult moths have a reduced mouth and do not eat.
Plant Foods: leaves
Primary Diet: herbivore (Folivore )
There are no known direct positive effects of polyphemus moths on humans, though many are hand-raised by curious individuals.
Polyphemus moth caterpillars are occasionally considered pests to plum orchards in California.
Negative Impacts: crop pest
After about 10 days, tiny polyphemus moth caterpillars hatch from eggs. Larvae (caterpillars) molt 5 times and grow to their full size in 5 to 6 weeks. When caterpillars are fully grown, they wrap themselves in a leaf and build a cocoon out of silk. Cocoons are oval in shape, 40 mm in length and 22 to 24 mm in diameter. While in a cocoon, a caterpillar develops into a pupa and then emerges as an adult moth in about 2 weeks. Polyphemus moths can also overwinter in their cocoons, which increases time as pupae.
Development - Life Cycle: metamorphosis
Polyphemus moths have not been evaluated or are not considered threatened by the IUCN, US Fish and Wildlife Service or CITES.
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
State of Michigan List: no special status
When ready to mate, female polyphemus moths emit pheromones that attract males. Males use their sense of smell and touch to find females. Although larvae (caterpillars) have eyes, they are small and primitive, resulting in poor vision.
Communication Channels: tactile ; chemical
Other Communication Modes: pheromones
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; chemical
Polyphemus moths are so named for the large eyespots on their wings. They are named after the Greek myth of the Cyclops, Polyphemus.
Polyphemus moths act as prey for certain insects, raccoons, and squirrels. They are also parasitized by some wasps. Because they consume a large quantity of leaves, they may also considerably contribute to nutrient cycling.
Commensal/Parasitic Species:
Polyphemus moths, Antheraea polyphemus, can be found in all of the continental United States except Arizona and Nevada and in every Canadian province except Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native )
Polyphemus moths inhabit deciduous hardwood forests, urban areas, orchards, and wetlands.
Habitat Regions: temperate
Terrestrial Biomes: forest
Wetlands: marsh ; swamp ; bog
Other Habitat Features: urban ; suburban ; agricultural ; estuarine
As adults (moths), polyphemus moths live a maximum of only 4 days. Their entire life cycle averages about 3 months in length. This includes about 10 days as eggs, 5 to 6 weeks as larvae, 2 weeks as pupa, and about 4 days as adults. If they overwinter as pupa, this life cycle increases in length.
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 3 months.
Average lifespan
Status: captivity: 3 months.
Polythemus moths, as caterpillars, are bright green with a reddish brown head. They have 6 orange tubercles and bristles on each segment of their body. Each abdomen segment has a slanted yellow line that is purple-brown in color. Caterpillars can grow to about 7 cm in length.
As adults, members of this species are large moths. Polythemus moths have a hairy body, and adults can vary from red-brown to dark brown in color. Each hind wing has a large yellow “eyespot” lined with blue and black. The center of this eyespot is uniquely transparent. The front wings have a smaller yellow spot. The margin of both the front and hind wings has a black and white stripe. Wingspan ranges from 10 to 15 cm. Whereas adult males have bushy antennae for detecting pheromones, females have slender antennae.
Polyphemus moth caterpillars greatly resemble caterpillars of luna moths. While polyphemus moths have single horizontal lines along each side of the body, luna moths have vertical yellow lines on each segment.
Range length: caterpillar 7 (high) cm.
Range wingspan: 10 to 15 cm.
Sexual Dimorphism: sexes alike
Other Physical Features: ectothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Polyphemus moth caterpillars are preyed upon by yellowjackets and ants. They are also parasitized by wasps. Larvae and pupae are consumed by raccoons and squirrels. The green coloration of caterpillars makes them difficult to spot. Adults also practice mimicry; they have eyespots on their hind wings.
Known Predators:
Anti-predator Adaptations: cryptic
Popyphemus moths mate the same day that they emerge from their cocoons, and mating usually occurs during late afternoon. Females emit pheromones, which can be detected up to a mile away, to attract mates. Mating of saturniids can last from less than an hour to many hours. Females lay their eggs shortly after mating. If unsuccessful in recruiting a male after 2 or 3 days, females stop calling and release their unfertilized eggs.
Mating System: polygynous
Female polyphemus moths begin to emerge and mate during early spring. Females lay up to 5 eggs singly or in groups of 2 or 3 on the underside of tree leaves. Eggs are flat and round, cream to light tan in color on top with a brown outline, and are about 1.25 mm thick and 3 mm in diameter. In most regions, 2 broods of polyphemus moths hatch per year; one hatches in early spring and the other in late summer. However, in the northernmost part of their range, only one brood hatches per year. In the southern part of their range, many broods may hatch each year.
Breeding interval: Polyphemus moths breed once in their lifetime.
Breeding season: Polyphemus moths breed in early spring or summer.
Range eggs per season: 1 to 5.
Key Reproductive Features: seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; fertilization (Internal ); oviparous
Female polyphemus moths usually lay their eggs on leaves that are a good food source for the caterpillars. They are not otherwise involved in the rearing of their offspring.
Parental Investment: no parental involvement
Antheraea polyphemus, the Polyphemus moth, is a North American member of the family Saturniidae, the giant silk moths.[1] It is a tan-colored moth, with an average wingspan of 15 cm (6 in). The most notable feature of the moth is its large, purplish eyespots on its two hindwings. The eyespots give it its name – from the Greek myth of the cyclops Polyphemus. The species was first described by Pieter Cramer in 1776. The species is widespread in continental North America, with local populations found throughout subarctic Canada and the United States. The caterpillar can eat 86,000 times its weight at emergence in a little less than two months. Polyphemus moths are considered to be very polyphagous, meaning they eat from a wide variety of plants[2]
The life cycle of the moth is much like that of any other Saturniidae species. It lays flat, light-brown eggs on the leaves of a number of host trees, preferring Ulmus americana (American elm), Betula (birch), Salix (willow), but also, more rarely, can survive on other trees, including: Quercus (oak), Acer (maple), Carya (hickory), Fagus (beech), Gleditsia triacanthos (honey locust), Juglans (walnut), Pyrus (pear and quince), Prunus (plum, peach, apricot, cherry, etc.), Sassafras, and Citrus.
When the eggs hatch, small yellow caterpillars emerge. As the caterpillars age, they molt five times (the fifth being into a pupa). Each instar is slightly different, but on their fifth and final instar, they become bright green with silver spots on their sides. They feed heavily on their host plant and can grow up to 3–4 inches long. They then spin cocoons of brown silk, usually wrapped in leaves of the host plant.
Two broods generally hatch each year throughout the United States, one in early spring and one in late summer. The moths close and then must pump their wings with fluid (hemolymph) to extend them. The females emit pheromones, which the male can detect through his large, plumose (feathery) antennae. Males can fly for miles to reach a female.
After the moths mate, the female spends the majority of the remainder of her life laying eggs, while the male may mate several more times. Adults of this family of moths have vestigial mouths, meaning their mouth parts have been reduced. Because of this, they do not eat and only live as adults for less than one week.
In captivity, this moth is much more difficult to breed than other American saturniids such as Hyalophora cecropia, Callosamia promethea, or Actias luna. Kept in a cage, the male and female tend to ignore each other, unless a food plant (particularly oak leaves) is present.
Eggs
Caterpillar in Virginia, United States
Adults mating
Underside viewed through a window
Topside after falling off window
Differentiating between sexes of this species is very easy. The most obvious difference is the plumose antennae. Males have very bushy antennae while females have moderately less bushy antennae. The male's antennae are used to detect pheromones released by unmated females. Another difference is that the females are slightly larger in the abdomen due to carrying eggs. A surprising amount of variation occurs within this species. Color patterns can range from a reddish cinnamon to a dark brown, but are almost always a shade of brown.
In the late 1950s, amateur lepidopterist Gary Botting hybridized the Polyphemus moth (then known as Telea polyphemus) with Antheraea yamamai from Japan and, later, Antheraea mylitta from India by transferring the pheromone-producing scent sacs from female "T. polyphemus" to the Antheraea females and allowing T. polyphemus males to mate with them. The resultant hybrids were displayed in his winning U.S. National Science Fair exhibit "Intergeneric hybridization among giant silk moths". After Botting consulted with genetic statistician J.B.S. Haldane and his wife, entomologist Helen Spurway, the Polyphemus moth was reclassified, becoming Antheraea polyphemus.
Parasitic insects – such as the parasitoid wasp – lay their eggs in or on the young caterpillars. These then hatch into larvae that consume the insides of the caterpillars. Once the caterpillars pupate, the larvae themselves pupate, killing the Polyphemus pupa. The Compsilura concinnata tachinid fly, introduced to North America to control gypsy moth, is one particular known threat to the North American native Polyphemus moth.[3]
Squirrels have also been known to consume the pupae of Polyphemus moths, decreasing the population greatly. Pruning of trees and leaving outdoor lights on at night can also be detrimental to the moths.
The Polyphemus moth uses defense mechanisms to protect itself from predators. One of its most distinctive mechanisms is a distraction display that serves to confuse, or simply distract, predators. This involves the large eyespots on its hindwings, which give the moth its name (from the cyclops Polyphemus in Greek mythology). Eyespots are also startle patterns, a subform of distraction patterns, used for camouflage via deceptive and blending coloration.
Most startle patterns are brightly colored areas on the outer body of already camouflaged animals. (Another example of the use of startle patterns is the gray treefrog, with its bright-yellow leggings. When it leaps, a flash of bright yellow appears on its hind legs, usually startling the predator away from its prey.) Distraction patterns are believed to be a form of mimicry, meant to misdirect predators by markings on the moths' wings. The pattern on the hindwings of the Polyphemus moth resembles that on the head of the great horned owl (Bubo virginianus). This defense mechanism often results in wing damage to the moth, which does not affect the insects flight.
Antheraea polyphemus, the Polyphemus moth, is a North American member of the family Saturniidae, the giant silk moths. It is a tan-colored moth, with an average wingspan of 15 cm (6 in). The most notable feature of the moth is its large, purplish eyespots on its two hindwings. The eyespots give it its name – from the Greek myth of the cyclops Polyphemus. The species was first described by Pieter Cramer in 1776. The species is widespread in continental North America, with local populations found throughout subarctic Canada and the United States. The caterpillar can eat 86,000 times its weight at emergence in a little less than two months. Polyphemus moths are considered to be very polyphagous, meaning they eat from a wide variety of plants
