Spanish Moon Moth

• GeneralDiscovered in Madrid in 1849; it is the most spectacular moth in Europe.
• Like other emperor moths, the adult does not feed: it lives barely a week, just long enough to mate and lay its eggs.
• It was one of the first insect species protected by law in Spain; collectors pursued it so relentlessly that it fetched very high prices on the black market.
• It is considered the most beautiful moth in Europe, and it is an endemism almost exclusive to the Iberian mountains.
• It was discovered by the Spanish naturalist Mariano de la Paz Graells at Peguerinos, Ávila, in 1848, and he dedicated it to Queen Isabella II. The species was later renamed in honour of Graells himself.
• Its discovery stirred controversy: there were entomologists who could not believe that a moth so unlike the European ones could come from Spain, and who maintained that Graells had brought it from India or the Americas.
• It is the only European saturniid with tails on its hindwings, and the only representative of its genus.
• It has a single generation a year, and the adult flies between April and July depending on altitude.
• It is protected by the European Union's Habitats Directive, the Bern Convention and CITES, and is listed as a species of special interest in the Spanish catalogue. Its main threats are fires, spraying against the processionary moth, and collectors.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat & environment

Mountain pine woods of Scots and black pine

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graellsia_isabellae

Best time: April to June, on mild nights in mountain pine woods