12 / OutdoorIllinois July 2006

“Surely this must be a first,” I thought.“No one could ever have seen such ananimal before.” A giant moth was hang-ing somewhat uncomfortably from ametal turnbuckle holding up a powerpole along the tree-lined street that ledfrom school. I coaxed the large red,brown and white moth onto my finger,put it in my lunch bag, and hurried hometo find out what I had. It turned out to be

Iwas a fortunate child. As Illinoisauthor Stephen Lyons has said,“Rare is the time when we canquiet our inquisitive minds suffi-ciently and enjoy the presenttense. Rarer still is knowingwhich quick hours in a long life

will be the kind of precious touchstoneswe will draw on in later life.”At age 9, I found such a touchstone.

While trekking home from school onewarm day in May I encountered the mostwonderful creature I had ever seen.

Story and PhotosBy Michael R. Jeffords

Fromdazzlingto drab,

the mothsof Illinois

are asfascinatingas the stars.

Creatures of the Night

Its bright color and spined tubercles projecting from

the body wall of the 1-inch stinging rose caterpillar

warn potential predators of poisonous qualities.

North America’s largest moth, the Cecropia,

can reach 6 inches in width.

July 2006 OutdoorIllinois / 13

a female cecropia moth, newlyemerged, and, as the book said, themost common giant silk moth in Illinois.While I had not made a monumental dis-covery of a new species, I was foreverhooked on insects, and that mothbecame the focal point for my newinsect collection and ultimately led to mypresent career as an entomologist.This article, however, is not about

me, but about this most remarkablegroup of creatures, mostly nocturnal,called moths. In reality, moths are mem-bers of the insect order Lepidoptera.Wordwide there are some 150,000

species. In Illinois, we have, using aconservative estimate, at least 2,000 dif-ferent species. These range in size fromthe aforementioned giant, the cecropia,to minute, nearly microscopic jewelscalled microlepidoptera. These beautiescan only be appreciated with the aid of astrong magnifying glass.The order Lepidoptera contains the

well-known butterflies, but by far thelargest group is the moths. What’s thedifference? Butterflies are diurnal (active

during the day), they cannot fold theirwings together and lay them across theirbacks, and they have knobbed anten-nae. Most moths are nocturnal (active atnight), fold their wings like a tent overthe body and have feathery or thin,unknobbed antennae. While the greatmajority of moths are drably colored,quite a few sport really spectacular pat-terns, including the giant silk, sphinx andunderwing moths, just to name a few.Illinois has many different moth fami-

lies, but they all share a basic life cycle.Females lay eggs on an appropriate foodplant; the larvae hatch to feed and moltseveral times; when full grown, the lar-vae either spin a cocoon, burrow into thesoil or find some other sheltered place

Seen hovering over flowers, with wings

beating rapidly, bumblebee sphinx moths,

also called clearwing moths (above), often

are mistaken for hummingbirds or bees.

The gray tussock moth larva (right) is a

relative of the gypsy moth. Its long hairs

can cause allergic reactions in some people.

The translucent, bright-green larva of the

Polyphemus moth becomes a reddish-brown

moth with a wingspan that can reach 5.5 inches. Some moths resort tomimicry and flash large,intimidating eyespots tofrighten predators.and molt into the pupal stage. They caneither spend the winter in this form oremerge during the same season. Adultfemale moths then release a chemicalcalled a pheromone to attract a mate,and the whole process begins anew.While moths are certainly some of

the most commonly encountered crea-

14 / OutdoorIllinois July 2006

And my all-time favorite, “I’ve gotdragons eating my hickory tree!” (Expla-nation: The larvae of the royal walnutmoth, called hickory horned devils, canreach six inches in length and sport animpressive, harmless arsenal of spines,hooks and knobs. It doesn’t take manyof these ravenous lepidopteran behe-mouths to defoliate a tree.)Moths also intrude upon the lives of

humans in various unwanted ways.Those tiny, pesky creatures that flutterfrom a seldom-opened closet have likelymade a meal of your best woolens. Thelarvae of the family Tineidae love to eatnatural fibers. The sudden death of yourprized zucchini plant was caused by the

burrowing activity of the squash vineborer, the larvae of a quite beautifulmoth in the family Sessiidae that resem-bles a wasp. And ask any farmer aboutmoths and you will get a litany of woefulcreatures—corn earworm, black cut-worm and European corn borer.By and large, though, moths live

lives, as Thoreau so aptly stated, “ofquiet desperation.” They exist in relative

tures in Illinois—witness the activityaround a street light in midsummer—fewpeople pay them much mind unless theoccasional chance encounter sendsthem scurrying to the nearest phone orextension office for details of a “once-in-a-lifetime” encounter.Over the length of my career as an

entomologist, I’ve had a remarkable arrayof questions and observations posed.“I’ve got giant green worms eating my

tomatoes and they are covered with whiteeggs!” (Explanation: Tomato hornwormlarvae, the immature stage of a sphinxmoth, have been parasitized by tinywasps, the “eggs” are the wasp cocoon.)“There’s this giant, ugly web in my

cherry tree and caterpillars marching allover my sidewalk! (Explanation: Easterntent caterpillars weave a large, silkennest and forage out from it to feed.)

Larva of the royal walnut moth are

commonly called hickory horned devils

(above). The adult phase is pictured on the

bottom right corner of page 15.

Moths exhibit tremendous variety in size

and color, including the bright-green,

long-tailed luna moth (up to 4.25 inches)

and the 1-inch orange and black Ailanthus

webworm moth (below, right).

Larva of the 1-inch, colorful gaura moth (below)

feed on the plant for which it is named. Plume

moths (right) are usually small in size with fringe

on their hind wings.

July 2006 OutdoorIllinois / 15

obscurity, hoping to avoid becoming partof the food chain before they can repro-duce. Nothing makes a migrating springwarbler or a breeding pair of wrens hap-pier than frequent encounters with theseluscious, lepidopteran tidbits. In fact justabout every creature that calls itself acarnivore will make a meal of moth lar-vae, given the chance.How, then, do any moths survive to

reproduce? Over the eons, moths havedeveloped an impressive array of defens-es that enable them to survive as mostlytasty members at the base of nearly allfood chains. Members of the family Arcti-idae, however, have distasteful chemicalsin their bodies and are warningly coloredto alert potential predators. Members ofseveral families have larvae covered withimpressive spines, many tipped in poiso-

amateur lepidopterists across the stateand country have contributed greatly toour knowledge of these remarkablecreatures.

nous compounds,that give even themost aggressivepredators pause.But by far the mosteffective strategyis simply to disap-pear into the back-ground, or appearas something thatis not edible. Some

moths resembles dead leaves, twigs orbird droppings, while others resort to mim-icry and flash large, intimidating eyespotsto frighten predators, or have brightly col-ored hindwings that disappear under theforewings when the creature lands, thusfoiling the pursuer.Studying these creatures of the

night sky can be an endlessly fascinat-ing, lifelong pursuit, and many talented

Excellent guides for helping in theidentification of moths are the Field

Guide to the Silkmoths of Illinois byJohn K.Bouseman and James G. Stern-burg, The Moth Book: A Guide to theMoths of North America by W. J. Hol-land Moths, or A Field Guide to Moths ofEastern North America (Peterson FieldGuide) by Charles V. Covell.

Dr. Michael Jeffords is an entomologistand the education/outreach coordinatorfor the Illinois Natural History Suvery inChampaign-Urbana.