I.D moth,please.

Found this humongus moth on my Tx.White Star hibiscus. I'm assuming it was newly emerged.Need i.d.

Polyphemus moth (Antheraea polyphemus). Adults have no working mouth parts and don't feed.

Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com

Thanks a lot. It certainly is a beauty

Polyphemus moths are very easy to raise. If you can capture a fertilized female, and place her in a ventilated container for a few hours, you will have plenty of eggs. You might want to release her after a little while so that she can finish laying the eggs where she meant to. Oak leaves are the favorite food of the caterpillars, but walnut, hickory, pecan and more will do the trick. The caterpillars eat and poop A LOT, and get quite large. That is another reason to avoid collecting all the 100+ eggs form one female. They form a silk cocoon, and appreciate twigs and leaves onto which they can attach it.
Do not keep the cocoons indoors unless it is still Spring or early Summer. Late summer cocoons are meant to hatch next Spring, and if kept inside, the warm temperature will make them come out at the wrong time, and often malformed.

I'll just let Mother Nature take care of them and enjoy them when I find them. My one and only attempt to raise cats was a disaster

Thanks for sharing the photo. It is a gorgeous moth.

Wow, that is a beauty.