royalty

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Regal moth, a.k.a royal walnut moth (Citheronia regalis)

One of the great things about summer are the visitors that show up on your backporch attracted by the bright lights at night.

It would be tempting to think that this royal walnut moth is the adult version of the caterpillar I found and blogged about last August: junior devil. It's probably not, odds are overwhelming against such an occurrence, but it's fun to imagine that I could be so lucky to be visited twice by the same creature in two different forms, although in this case the incredible green hulk morphed into handsome physicist Dr. Bruce Banner, although I don't remember him being a redhead.  

The adult royals have the largest body (not the greatest wingspan) of any moth that's found north of Mexico. The caterpillars ARE incredible hulks—the legendary, green and over-sized hickory horned devils.

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horned devil adieu

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I first posted a photo of this odd thing a few weeks ago. This then is its last official portrait before it goes underground to complete its transformation.

Isn't it adorable!

After a week in captivity being talked to and pampered and fed bowl after bowl of sumac leaves, we bid a fond adieu to a hickory horned devil, America's largest caterpillar, certainly the largest to ever be in my living room.

junior devil is growing

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I guess we can file this one under: A face only a mother could love

Our little baby is growing. The hickory horned devil I posted last week has molted into an entire new color, complete with devil red horns. This could be he/she/its final instar.

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junior devil

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File this one under: What the heck?

This time of the year, you should always take your camera on your walks because you never know what you might bump into, but then you might find yourself asking, "What the heck is this?"

It looked something like a hickory horned devil, but it wasn't big enough or the right color. After perusing my caterpillar guides I still did not know what this sweet thing happened to be. It came fully loaded: about as long as an old fashioned Tootsie Roll, it had spikes and horns and spots and stripes. If you look closely enough, you might even see a cup holder.

Finally, I turned to the Internet and discovered that hickory horned devils—the caterpillar stage of the royal walnut moths—go through several instars where they split their old skins and emerge bigger. They also go through color changes black to brown to tan to green and what I had discovered was merely one of the intermediate stages, a devil junior, so to speak.

Royal walnut moth

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