This is a Imperial Moth (Eacles imperialis) on my daughters ear While out running errands Tuesday I had to stop and get gas. While I was getting out of my car I caught a glimpse of this lovely lady out of the corner of my eye and did a double take she was clinging onto the bottom of the gas pump. I felt very lucky to find such a moth and was very excited to say the least as I had never seen one of these before nor had I any clue as to what kind it was. So I went in and got a box from the store and feeling kind of lucky I decided to buy one of those scratchy lottery tickets she must be lucky cause I won $10 bucks I brought her home and a few hours later she started laying eggs she is a productive thing too cause she kept laying and laying Hopefully they are fertile and I will have some caterpillars in a few weeks.


Imperial moth (Eacles imperialis [Drury]) Wing span: 3 1/8 - 6 7/8 inches (8 - 17.4 cm). Identification: Females are larger than males. Upperside is yellow with pinkish brown to purple-brown patches, bands, and cell spots, and tiny brown spots scattered overall. Males have larger patches on the forewings than females, except for some subspecies pini males which have reduced purple and are mostly yellow. Life history: Adults emerge before sunrise and mate after midnight the next day. Females lay eggs at dusk singly or in groups of 2-5 on both surfaces of host plant leaves. The eggs hatch in about 2 weeks, and the caterpillars are solitary feeders. Pupation takes place in underground burrows. Flight: One brood; in the north from June-August, in the south from April-October. Caterpillar hosts: Conifers and deciduous trees and shrubs including pine (Pinus), oak (Quercus), box elder (Acer negundo), maples (Acer), sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua), and sassafras (Sassafras albidum). Subspecies pini feeds only on conifers. Adult food: Adults do not feed. 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.


Some links about the lovely Imperial Moth for those of you who love to expand their knowledge
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Some other pics of her and her babies
"Imperial Moth [link] "
"Empress [link] "
"Life Cycle [link] "
"Life Cycle II [link] "
"Imperial Caterpillar [link] "

and if you like this you might like my Polyphemus Moth
"Reflected Image [link] "
"Polyphemus [link] "
"Night Flier [link] "






Taken with the Canon 300D