Atlas Moth

• récordIt has one of the largest wing areas of any moth or butterfly in the world, and the adults have no working mouthparts, so they do not feed during their short adult life.
• The tips of its forewings reproduce a snake's head with remarkable fidelity, eye and snout included, and the moth waves them when it feels threatened.
• Its cocoon yields a brown, tough and highly valued silk, fagara silk, which in India is gathered by hand.
• It is one of the largest moths in the world: up to 25 or 26 cm in wingspan, and one of the largest wing areas of any lepidopteran, above 160 cm².
• Only the white witch, Thysania agrippina, surpasses it in wingspan, reaching some 31 cm.
• The adult does not feed. Its mouthparts are atrophied and it lives for barely a week or two on the fat stored up as a caterpillar.
• That is precisely why it flies little: moving such enormous wings costs a great deal of energy, and it prefers to stay close to where it emerged from the cocoon.
• The tips of the forewings mimic a snake's head, complete with the pattern and the curve of the snout. In Hong Kong its Cantonese name literally means snake's head moth.
• The caterpillar reaches 11.5 cm, is green with soft blue protuberances, and is covered in a white waxy bloom.
• The male can detect a female's pheromones from kilometres away with his feathery antennae.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat and environment

Tropical and subtropical rainforest of southern and South-East Asia

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Attacus atlas

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.