# big moth can't fly wut should i do?



## Longbord1

this morning i came to  find a monstrous moth which i think to be a ceropia moth.
anywway he was on my screen door. so i touched him to see if it would fly and he wouldn't fly he just glided to the floor and he kept on trying to flap and didn't go anywhere.also hes feet seemed to not be doing anything.i felt bad for the poor sucker so i immediatly tok a container and put him in there with a paper towel with nail polish remover and im going to get him pinned. was this a good idea?

mike


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## cichlidsman

nice meal for a spider


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## Brian S

cichlidsman said:
			
		

> nice meal for a spider


heheehe I was thinking the same thing.


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## Longbord1

he is just way to pretty to feed to a tarantula.im thinking of giving him to my gf as a present   and it is a male so he probably was dying and had mated already.

mike


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## Navaros

Yeah get him pinned now that he's already dead.   Silk moths don't really fly well. And early in the morning they don't move much because they are cold.


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## Longbord1

heres a pic of it but i think i spelled it names wrong cuz other pics showed up when i spelled it correctly can someone tell me if this is indeed a ceropia moth?


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## Navaros

Hyalophora cecropia - Cecropia Moth.


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## Navaros

That is a Polyphemus moth you found, Antheraea polyphemus. Nice looking male and nice pic.


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## jezzy607

Yeah its a Polyphemus moth without a doubt!  It was still perfectly capable of flight, but they need to warm their flight muscles first for a couple of minutes.  When they are warming their flight muscles they appear to vibrate their whole bodies.


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## Navaros

What a coincidence, just found a huge Polyphemus caterpillar like 30 minutes ago.lol


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## Longbord1

nah he wasn't vibrating and it wasn't cold out at all so i just think his number was up. he seemed like he was hurt and was attacked by a bird or something either way its too late now,

mike


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## Navaros

They always seem like that when they are cold.


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## Longbord1

i found him when it was 75 degrees out and they can fly at 45 degrees f

mike


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## jezzy607

It doesn't matter if it was 75 degrees, I believe their wing muscles need to be at around 88 degrees, which they can still attain when ambient temps are as low as 45 degrees, they just need to vibrate longer when it is cooler.

Also as a defense, they fall to the ground, which resembles a leaf falling to the ground, which attracts much less attention than flying(during the day), and may fool some birds.  If further disturbed they flash their eyespots which may startle small birds, but does not fool them all.


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## Brian S

jezzy607 said:
			
		

> It doesn't matter if it was 75 degrees, I believe their wing muscles need to be at around 88 degrees, which they can still attain when ambient temps are as low as 45 degrees, they just need to vibrate longer when it is cooler.
> 
> Also as a defense, they fall to the ground, which resembles a leaf falling to the ground, which attracts much less attention than flying(during the day), and may fool some birds.  If further disturbed they flash their eyespots which may startle small birds, but does not fool them all.


You are quite right. When disturbed they will "play possum".


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## Longbord1

you guys im telling u it was dieing i saw it it wasn't playing dead cuz when it was on the ground it was trying to flap and not go anywhere.its legs were scrunched up against it so it was dying believe me.

mike


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## jezzy607

Also when they fall they often tuck their legs close to their body.  I didn't say that you were wrong(I don't think?) I was just giving you some information about your moth that I thought you would like to know.


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## Navaros

Every silkmoth I've seen in the wild has done this. I don't think they were all dying.


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## Longbord1

ahahaha my bad .sry guys if i sounded a little rude i didn't mean too.   
anyway its too late and hell make a great specimen thanx for ur imput ive really never caught a moth that big in ny ive only caught a atlas and it must have a different behavior or something


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## Wade

Either way, the adult lifespan is very short, generally less than a week. The adults do not even have moths and do not feed!

Wade


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## JimmyG1971

jezzy607 said:


> Yeah its a Polyphemus moth without a doubt!  It was still perfectly capable of flight, but they need to warm their flight muscles first for a couple of minutes.  When they are warming their flight muscles they appear to vibrate their whole bodies.


I know this post is over 15 years old, LOL but I just found a polyphemus moth  that I thought was dying until I just read your post. It was flapping its wings and would fall to the ground like a leaf.  I put it in my hand and walked out in the sun and  in under a minute it started vibrating really fast and eventually flew away. Pretty cool. Thanks for posting !

Reactions: Like 1


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