UPDATE: We’ve figured out what it is!
Yesterday I was visiting my parents to celebrate Father’s day and hang out for a while. While I was there, they showed me this amazing moth that had taken up residence on their porch. Normally a bug landing on the side of a house isn’t that interesting, but take a look at this thing:
A couple days earlier it was raining really hard on and off throughout the day. During that time the moth stopped here to dry off and hadn’t moved much since.
We tried to figure out what kind of moth it was. It’s huge! About 4.5 inches across, with large, fuzzy appendages and antennaes that looked like little ferns growing out of its head. When the wings opened it revealed brilliantly colored “eyes” that were otherwise concealed. I vaguely remembered watching a National Geographic show that said something about how this is a defense mechanism designed to ward off predators by revealing this “face” and scaring them off.
You definitely don’t see moths like this in Oregon very often, and after looking at a bunch of moth photos on Wikipedia to try and deduce the species we figured out why – they’re not from around here. In fact, they’re not even from this continent. We’re fairly confident that this little guy is an Emperor Gum Moth (Opodiphthera Eucalypti) – every photo of this species found looked exactly like our little buddy on the porch. You know where they’re indigenous? Australia. To illustrate why this is weird:
View Emperor Gum Moth in Oregon in a larger map
So what was he doing all the way up here? No idea. In fact, in trying to find other instances of Emperor Gum Moths being found in the United States, let alone the Pacific Northwest, all we could come up with was a photo on Wikipedia entitled “Proof of Emperor Gum Moth in Washington.”
Well, I guess now we have proof of one in Oregon too.
A few interesting facts about our Emperor Gum Moth:
- My mom wanted to know if we should feed it. Turns out that might have been tricky, because they don’t eat. At all. Instead, for the two weeks of their lives the live as a moth, they subsist on the energy they stored up as a caterpillar. Their jaws can’t even chew. Crazy.
- Even crazier – though they spend only two weeks of life as a moth, they can spend anywhere from 1-5 years in their cocoon.
- We named him or her Gumby. Not exactly sure why.
More photos:
Can anyone verify the rarity of this or provide a good explanation for what Gumby is doing in our neck of the woods?
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Boy, good thing it was you who found it and not me! I would have been grossed out and killed it and then never gave it another moments thought!
This sucker was so big I think you would have given it a second thought. The body looked like a large bumblebee. When it eventually took off it seriously looked like a small bat.
Hello:
My cat just brought a gum moth into the house, I did get groused out, I went to move a container from the kitchen counter and just found this huge moth. Guess I know what my cat was after….
I helped it outside, not with my hands and let it go. When doing my search I could only come up with this moth as to what it was. But the same question was asked by me…..How did it get to Northern Ontario, Canada….
I live in SW Portland (Oregon) I found one of these moths today- actually, my dog was trying to eat it on the deck outside. It’s huge and almost acted like it’s wings were wet … or atleast the wings looked curled in and wilted. It sat on the side of a plant holder in the direct sun and after about a half an hour, it’s wings were starting to spread out and become taut. My dog kept pawing at the ground nearby as if it has just hatched from the leaves nearby- it was just bizarre.
Here is an example of exactly what I found.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Emperor_Gum_Moth.jpg
I have pics of the moth in my yard too, I just don’t know how to post them on this site.
The moth was about 6 -7 ” from head to toe, not sure how big it’s wings were, but it was huge and fuzzy!
@Alyssa – You should post them on Flickr and I’ll link to them from here! Same goes for anyone else who found an Emperor Gum Moth in a weird place and wants to share.
Wow, I just found one of those in the hall of my apartment complex. It was on the ceiling all day and I have no idea how long it had been there.
I live in Mass. and saw two of these moths. About two months ago we saw an even larger one that seemed to be ‘attached’ to an out door light. If they are native to Austalia how are they here?
I was at a week-long camp in Pennsylvania, and I saw one of these in the one pavilion. It was flapping like crazy and slamming itself on the ground. I snapped a picture of it on my phone, and it looks so much like the Emperor Gum Moth. It was cool! It landed next to my foot and sat there for maybe an hour. I was sitting there with my girlfriend just staring at it. She was writing, and I was enjoying nature, and it just flew in. It was probably near 11:00 pm.
Well, judging from all the comments left here the Emperor Gum Moth is clearly alive and well in North America. Interesting. They clearly must have come over at some point from Australia and had no trouble adapting to the climate.
Hi,
I live in Mount Forest, Ontario, Canada. The other evening one of these moths was spread out on our walkway. It was dark and I almost stepped on it. When the motion sensor lights turned on, we could admire it better. My daughters took pictures so we looked it up online to determine the species. My husband used to work in a sawmill. He said that often similar looking moths would come in the sawmill on logs. Perhaps this is how they are moving from one place to the other. I thought it was beautiful…
We have one in our back yard at this moment/
I’m writing from Houston TX.
My mom found this “little” guy after he fell out of a tree. Tampa, Florida.
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=3290
Found it! It’s a Polyphemus moth, Antheraea Polyphemus.
Here are my pictures on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41386298@N03/
We just found one at our apartment complex in Arkansas! It is pretty cool looking and my son loves it.
yeah i found an emperor gum moth in a tree in Holland Michigan. Catapiler stage 5? I think. About 4 inches long 1 and a half inch wide. crazy colors. saw in the 21 august 2009.
We just found one here in North Richland Hills TX (Dallas). We did take photos but I’m sure if we can post it on this web site.
Cool looking moth with the large eyes and the antennae.
We found a Emperor Gum Moth the other day in our back yard. It was dead. Not sure if our cat got it or its life was just done. Have never seen a moth like this before and it was quite beautiful (as moths go.) Started doing some research and Native to Austrilla makes me wonder like you in Oregon How did it get all the way here? Very interesting. Did not take a pic of it but should have. My sons friend said we should have incased it in glass….Anyway….guess we are some of the lucky ones to get to see these rare beautiful moths.
Chiming in from Houston,Texas. Ive got two Emperor Gum Moths on the front door area of my apt. Definatly weird since they are long way from native home but they are cool looking.
Hey Justin -
Yeah, there’s actually a much more likely explanation that I’ve settled on. But it’s still a cool looking moth!
We live in Nelson NZ and we have just found a reddish Emperor Gum Moth on our doorstep. I haven’t seen one for a few years now and just checked for my son to confirm that it was what I thought it was as Our native NZ Puriri moth is the largest moth here which is green and is at least 1/2 a size bigger.
My son Michael found a caterpillar crawling around on some dead branches of a houseplant in early October of last year, at his grandmother’s home in Lancaster, Kentucky. He put it in a jar with some of said branches, to show off the next day in school, but upon awaking, he discovered a cocoon!
Well, here it is early March 2010, and my son is the proud god-parent of an Emperor Gum Moth! It is a male, and we’ve been giving it lots of light in a small terrarium we’ve used to transport live crickets to their final destinations (as dinner for Michael’s fire-bellied toads).
It is gorgeous, even with a more muted color schema than some lepidoptera…