Welcome to Mothman's Silk Moth Page 

This is some general information that applies to all the silk moths (Saturniidae) on my page (if not all in the U.S.)

Silk Moths don't eat! They have to live on any food they stored as a caterpillar. Since they have a limited supply of energy and food, silk moths usually live only about a week. This lifespan can be increased to about a month if they are kept in the fridge, where very little energy is being used by them.

On this site, for each specific moth, I have the times that females put out their scent to attract males. However, this time is very general, and is for my area and from my experience. It may vary widely in different areas of the country. Each moth has a specific time for putting out it's scent. To see the specific times, please click below the appropriate link for the moth you want to see.

The female moth puts out a "scent" (which is really a pheromone, and cannot be smelled) at a specific time (different for every moth). This scent is picked up by the males with their sensitive antennae. A male moth may fly up to 5 miles in one night to reach the female and mate with it!

When a female moth hatches, it remains where it hatches until it gets male to mate with it. It attempts to attract males in with it's scent. If a female does not get a male to come to it, after 3 to 4 days, it WILL fly away from where it hatched, and will also start laying unfertilized eggs. They can still mate after this occurs, you just won't get as many good eggs out of them. If a female does get a mate to come in, they can remain paired for up to 24 hours. They can be broken apart after about five minutes and the egg should be fertilized, but there really is no reason to do this, so it's best to leave them coupled until they break up on their own. The only time you might want to break them up is if the female is older and you fear it might die before laying all it's eggs, otherwise you should let the couple separate by themselves.

Male and female silk moths differ slightly. There are a few ways to tell, but if you are not experienced (and even if you are) , it is sometimes very difficult to tell the difference.

• Both males and females make the same kind of cocoons. A silk casing on the outside, and then a pupa inside the casing. The most general way to tell is to pick the cocoon up. The females tend to be a bit heavier, but this way has no assurances.

• A good way to tell from the pupae is to look at the 5th segment of their body, see this picture to understand: pupae

• Another way (which is NOT at all recommended) is to open the silk casing from this you can look at the antennae. The antennae of the females are noticeably smaller than the males.

• The last way that I know of, is to wait until the moth hatches, and then again, look at it's antennae.