Great Peacock Moth

• GeneralThe largest moth in Europe: a 15 cm wingspan and four eyespots.
• Jean-Henri Fabre carried out his celebrated experiments on chemical communication with this species: he shut a female in his house and dozens of males came in from kilometres away, which led him to postulate the existence of pheromones decades before any were isolated.
• The male's feathery antennae detect a few molecules of pheromone per cubic metre of air.
• The adult emerges with no functional mouthparts and lives barely a week on the reserves built up by the caterpillar.
• It is Europe's largest moth: up to 16 cm in wingspan, and somewhat more in exceptional individuals.
• The adult does not feed: like the atlas moth, it has an atrophied proboscis and lives for a few days on its reserves.
• The four eyespots on its wings, one on each, mimic vertebrate eyes and startle the birds that attack it.
• The male locates the female by pheromones from several kilometres away, guided by enormous feathery antennae; it is a classic case from Jean-Henri Fabre's early experiments on smell in insects.
• Van Gogh painted it in 1889 during his stay at the asylum of Saint-Rémy, in a painting he mistakenly titled death's head moth.
• The caterpillar is green with blue tubercles and reaches 10 or 12 cm before spinning a pear-shaped brown cocoon.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat and environment

Orchards, market gardens and open Mediterranean woodland

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Saturnia pyri

Best time: April and May, on mild nights near fruit trees