(Editor’s note: Below is a modified script of Amelia Poplin’s 4-H presentation which won first prize in her 8-10-year-old age group in Anson County and second place in the statewide competition. )
Hi, my name is Amelia Poplin and today I will be talking about entomology. The main subject that I am going to talk about in the entomology category is moths.
- During Hurricane Florence, my family and I spotted a giant green blob on an oak tree in our back yard. We were thinking that it was probably a caterpillar and thought maybe we could go outside and try to catch it. It turns out that it was a caterpillar so we decided to take it inside our house to learn more about it.
- That same day, me and my mom searched online to figure out what type of caterpillar it was and what type of moth it would become so that we would know what to feed it.
- After a little bit of searching online, we learned that it would become a Polyphemus moth and that it liked oak trees and liked to eat oak leaves. This kind of made sense because that’s the type of tree we found him on. So, we cut a few oak limbs and brought them inside for him to climb on and eat the leaves.
Moth Lifecycle
- From our research, we learned that all moths and butterflies go through a lifecycle and do not live long lives like us.
- Their lifecycle is pretty cool, though. Let’s talk about the stages of their lifecycle.
- At first, butterflies and moths are very little caterpillars inside small eggs.
- Then after a few days, depending on the type of caterpillar, it emerges from the egg and eats a lot of leaves. The Polyphemus caterpillar goes through 5 instar stages as a caterpillar until it is ready to make its cocoon or chrysalis.
- After the caterpillar makes a chrysalis or cocoon, it lives in its new home for a while until it finally emerges as a butterfly or moth.
- Moths usually live at least a week or two before they die.
Here are some interesting facts about Polyphemus moths.
- Polyphemus moths are a type of silk moth and they are one of the biggest silk moths. Since our moth was so big, I named him Gigantor.
- Butterflies make a chrysalis as their home, but moths make a cocoon instead. Moths stay in their cocoons for several months and go through a process of overwintering which is what our moth did. We found Gigantor when he was in his fifth instar stage so we only had him about a day or two before he finished eating oak leaves and made his cocoon out of silk. We found him on Sept 16, 2018, and he emerged on June 4, 2019, so he overwintered for 8½ months. Man … he must have been tired. Once they emerge, Polyphemus moths do not require any type of food or nectar.
- We learned that our moth was a male because its abdomen was smaller. Did you know that, in nature, once a female emerges from her cocoon she calls for a mate and the sound can carry for at least a mile away? If a female Polyphemus moth mates with a male, she usually stays near the tree where she emerged from her own cocoon. She then lays her eggs, dies, and roughly 10 days later her new eggs hatch to start the cycle over again.
- If Gigantor were in the wild, he probably would have made his cocoon out of silk and leaves. Instead, he made his cocoon completely out of silk.
- When Gigantor emerged as a Polyphemus moth, we noticed that his wings looked as if there are eyes on them. This is a defense mechanism to scare away predators. His feather-like antennae are used as feelers to help him navigate and provide a sense of smell. They also help orient him during flight and detect pheromones of a potential mate.
Thank you for listening to my presentation about my Polyphemus moth, Gigantor, and other interesting facts about moths. I hope you enjoyed my presentation.