As a result, parents should know the species or handle the caterpillar themselves before allowing young children to touch any large, bristly caterpillar. However, a few of our smaller native silk moth caterpillars like the Io and buck moth ones can give painful stings. While some of these caterpillars have dangerous looking spines, I have never suffered any ill-effects from handling them. On the other hand, I always find their mature caterpillars in late summer when the moth literature says that people are apt to notice them. While this is frequently true, I have also found them fluttering around my house lights later in the summer. The internet contains a large amount of information on these four moths, and most of it states that they emerge from their cocoons in June. Their caterpillars have four prominent orange-red spikes behind their head, a single yellow spike near their rear, and numerous small blue or black spots on their pale green body. Males are darker than the females, and both sexes become active in the afternoon rather than at dusk like the preceding three species. The promethea moth can be identified by the pale, intricate borders on its brown or black wings. Luna caterpillars are recognized by the pale yellow line running along each side of their light green body and numerous small bristles on their backs. Young children are apt to recognize this moth from illustrated stories in some popular children’s books. The luna moth is lime green with a long swallowtail on each hind wing, and widely regarded as the most beautiful of all North American moths. The caterpillars are bright green, and have a vertical yellow line on each side of each body segment. The polyphemus moth is almost as large as the cecropia, and has very conspicuous yellow, blue, and black eyespots on each of its tan-colored hind wings. The caterpillars are as fierce looking as the moths are beautiful, and have numerous yellow, blue, and orange-red knobs full of spines on their light green bodies. Red and white crescents and borders on its wings. The cecropia moth is Michigan’s largest silk moth, and can be recognized by its rusty red body and the The caterpillars also become quite noticeable in late summer, and those photographs show the final growth stage where some can reach four inches in length. I am including descriptions and photographs of each of these species to help our readers identify any that they see this summer. I saw a few cecropia moths growing up in Lansing, and now occasionally see all four of Michigan’s giant silk moths here in rural Calhoun County. While our North American species have never been used to manufacture silk, the thread from some of their Asian cousins has been used for this purpose for thousands of years. The “silk” part of their family name comes from the fine thread that their caterpillars produce to spin the cocoons where they transform into moths. These moths also have stunning color patterns and classical names like cecropia, luna, promethea and polyphemus to match their physical beauty. Michigan has four giant silk moth species with wingspans up to six inches across. Then I saw a giant silk moth and learned some of our native moths are as spectacular as any butterfly. W hen I was a small child, I liked butterflies, but considered moths drab and boring.
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