Buzz
You probably thought moths were dull, right? Think again! From producing ultrasonic clicks that mess with sonar to practicing the sweet, pineapple-scented Kama Sutra, moths are truly more amazing than you could ever imagine.
10. A Moth That Looks Just Like a Fuzzy Pokemon Was Initially Believed to Be a Hoax
This fluffy white moth looks so strange that when its pictures first appeared online in 2009, many dismissed it as a hoax. However, it was later confirmed as a real moth of an unidentified species, photographed by zoologist Dr. Arthur Anker in 2009.
Anker's photographs were authenticated by Dr. Karl Shuker, a world-famous zoologist, science writer, and cryptozoologist. When news of this peculiar creature reached Shuker in 2012, he took it upon himself to investigate whether the image was real or just a Photoshop creation.
Shuker eventually located Anker, who had posted his photos of the poodle moth and other Venezuelan insect species on Anker’s Flickr page. As far as Anker knows, he's the only person to have ever captured a photo of this extraordinary moth, and no other zoologist has been able to identify it. Anker coined the name 'poodle moth' since it didn't have an official title.
There is still much debate surrounding the species of this moth. However, Shuker emphasizes that all attempts to identify it are mere theories until scientists have an actual specimen—preferably one that's alive.
9. Some Moths Are Almost Unrecognizable as Moths
Typically, you might expect a moth to be some dull shade of brown. But many moths sport vibrant, colorful patterns on their wings, with some even resembling entirely different species.
One of the most unusual examples is the hornet moth. This moth (Sesia apiformis) uses the trick of Batesian mimicry, fooling predators into thinking it has the defensive sting of a hornet, even though it's completely harmless. This causes predators to avoid it, not wanting to risk attacking a stinging insect.
Along with imitating the color patterns of a hornet, the hornet moth has also developed transparent wings (a rare feature for moths) and mimics the erratic movements of a hornet when flying.
Another strange moth, the hummingbird hawkmoth, is thought to be an example of convergent evolution, where two unrelated species evolve similar traits to survive in the same ecological environment.
The hummingbird hawkmoth has a long proboscis, which it uses to sip nectar from flowers. From a distance, this proboscis looks similar to a hummingbird's beak or tongue. Like a hummingbird, this moth hovers in place, flapping its wings so rapidly that they appear as an orange blur.
While many moths are nocturnal, this one prefers to go about its activities during the day. As it hovers, it produces a humming sound, the same sound that gives the hummingbird its name.
8. Auditory Deflection and Disposable Body Parts
The luna moth is famous for its striking beauty and soft green glow. However, it doesn't generate its own light. Instead, it has scales on its wings that reflect moonlight or other light sources.
Luna moths are unable to eat because they lack mouths. With a lifespan of only a week, their sole purpose is reproduction. But first, they must evade the deadly jaws of a ravenous bat.
For over 60 million years, moths and bats have been locked in an evolutionary arms race, each constantly evolving to outwit the other.
Bats use echolocation to hunt in the dark, creating a mental map of their prey based on the quality of the echoes that return after emitting sonar calls (high-pitched squeaks). The fluttering wings of a moth produce a distinct echo, signaling a meal to a bat. There's no way for a flying moth to avoid this telltale sound.
However, recent research has shown that the long, graceful tails on the luna moth’s hind wings twist as the moth flies, distorting the echoes that bounce back to the bats. As a result, the bat often misses the moth entirely or ends up with just a mouthful of tail wing.
This phenomenon is known as auditory deflection. It functions similarly to how the bright eyespots on a butterfly's wings redirect predators from the butterfly's vital body parts.
The luna moth’s wing tails are entirely expendable. Losing them doesn’t impair the moth’s ability to fly. More importantly, these wings provide the moth with a second chance to fulfill its life mission: reproduction.
7. Tears for Dinner, Anyone?
Many moths feed on the tears of large animals like deer, crocodiles, and elephants. In fact, some moths consume blood.
In 2004, scientists discovered that Hemiceratoides hieroglyphica, a Madagascan moth species, feeds on the tears of sleeping birds. Unlike larger animals with soft eyelids, birds have two eyelids and a protective membrane that must be pierced before their salty tears can be accessed.
How does Hemiceratoides hieroglyphica manage this feat? Unlike the softer proboscises of other moths that feed on larger animals, its proboscis is a small arsenal of sharp barbs, spines, and hooks.
Hemiceratoides hieroglyphica uses its proboscis tip, shaped like an ancient harpoon, to puncture the bird’s eyelid. The barbs secure the proboscis in place while the moth remains perched on the bird’s neck, feeding for up to 30 minutes.
Scientists theorize that the moth might spit anesthetic into the bird’s eyelid to keep it from waking up and turning the tables on the moth by trying to eat it.
6. A Noisy Thief That Uses Chemical Camouflage
The death’s-head hawkmoth is widely recognized thanks to its appearance in The Silence of the Lambs. While its distinctive skull-like pattern on the thorax grabs attention, this moth also boasts impressive traits. It’s known for sneaking into fully guarded beehives to steal honey, a feat that would be fatal for most other insects.
To infiltrate a beehive, the death’s-head must first navigate through ferocious guards, who would typically attack and kill any intruder. The moth manages to enter by raising its body and emitting a loud screech. This screech reportedly has a calming effect on the guards and worker bees, reducing their aggression.
The death’s-head moth is protected by a tough cuticle and a degree of immunity to bee venom. This makes it resistant to stings from bees that aren’t as affected by the screeching. As a result, it can endure several stings while making its dangerous entry into the hive with minimal injury.
Worker bees typically swarm any intruder that slips past the guards, sacrificing their lives to sting the intruder to death. However, the death’s-head moth passes through hundreds of worker bees unnoticed, thanks to a special chemical camouflage that it cloaks itself in.
The moth uses a kind of invisibility cloak by mimicking the scent of worker bees. As a result, it blends in perfectly, making it impossible for the bees to tell the moth apart from their fellow workers.
The moth doesn’t stop its high-pitched screeching during its honey-stealing mission. One theory is that it imitates the queen bee’s command to become passive, causing the worker bees to relax and not attack.
Although mistakes occasionally happen and death’s-head moths are sometimes found stung to death in commercial beehives, the moth is generally regarded as the ultimate, albeit noisy, thief of the night.
5. How Could A Moth Influence Where A Sloth Poops?
For years, scientists have struggled to understand why three-toed sloths—slow-moving, defenseless, half-blind, and half-deaf—descend from their treetop havens once a week to defecate on the ground, where they are extremely vulnerable to almost every predator imaginable.
More than half of all sloth deaths happen during their weekly trips to the ground for a bathroom break. So, why don’t they simply poop from the safety of their tree branches? And how does a seemingly insignificant moth play a role in this?
A sloth is essentially a miniature ecosystem. Its fur is home to algae, fungi, and mites that can’t be found anywhere else. The sloth’s hair is uniquely adapted to catch rainwater, nourishing its algae gardens and keeping them hydrated.
The sloth moth (also known as Cryptoses choloepi) lives exclusively in the fur of sloths. Scientists believe it feeds on the sloth’s skin secretions or the algae growing in its hair. The moth also lays its eggs only in the sloth’s droppings.
As the sloth defecates, the moths emerge from its fur and deposit their eggs in the dung. The eggs hatch into caterpillars that feed on the sloth’s waste until they mature into adult moths, ready to fly off and colonize new sloths.
Jonathan Pauli, a wildlife ecology expert, has suggested that moths and sloths share a mutually beneficial relationship, which encourages the sloth to take risks and cultivate the moth’s eggs despite the danger of exposure.
Pauli suggests that the algae thriving in the sloth’s fur might nourish themselves from the moths—either through nitrogen released when the moths die or by feeding on sloth droppings that cling to their bodies.
In exchange, sloths are believed to depend on the algae as an important nutrient source, one they can't get from their leafy meals. Additionally, the algae are thought to provide sloths with a greenish camouflage, which helps protect them from predators.
Critics argue that since no sloth has ever been spotted licking its fur, it seems improbable that they gain nutrition from the algae. Nevertheless, Pauli theorizes that the sloth may absorb nutrients through its skin, thanks to secretions from the algae.
4. Moth Kama Sutra With A Hint Of Pineapple
For most moth species, mating is a straightforward process. The female remains motionless, releasing a pheromone scent that the closest male detects and mates with her. Simple enough, right? But gold swift moths take things to a whole new level with their intricate mating rituals, said to be the most complex in the insect world.
Male gold swift moths often form a congregation known as a lek. There, they display their charm, waving yellow scent brushes that emit a fragrance of ripe pineapple. The delightful scent draws the attention of females, who pick their mate from among the males present in the lek.
Sometimes, the female simply enjoys the sunlight, flutters her wings in a playful manner, and releases her own pheromones. Then, she selects a mate from the males who gather around her.
The moths may also engage in aerial displays, dancing around one another before copulating mid-flight. This variety of courtship behaviors can leave the males puzzled, with some mistakenly attempting to mate with each other.
When mating starts, the moths explore several flexible positions, often culminating with the male hanging upside down from the female’s abdomen, both attached at the genitals. Alternatively, they may mate face-to-face or in a back-to-front position.
During mating, the moths must remain perfectly still to avoid being spotted and eaten. If left undisturbed, the entire process can last through the night.
3. Ultrasonic Genitals
Moths are a primary food source for bats, which are considered some of the most skilled acoustic hunters in the animal kingdom. However, the tiger moth has evolved a remarkable ability to scramble bat sonar signals using its advanced ultrasound emitters located in its thorax (the region between the head and abdomen).
When the tiger moth detects the bat’s sonar call, it precisely times its response by emitting a series of ultrasonic clicks. These clicks disrupt the bat’s sonar signals, temporarily confusing the bat and rendering it “blind.” This gives the moth valuable time to escape.
Hawkmoths from three different species have developed the fascinating ability to produce ultrasonic, sonar-disrupting signals by rubbing their genitalia when they sense a bat approaching. Researchers believe these sounds either deter the bat by warning of the hawkmoth’s sharp barbs on its legs or disorient the bat long enough to give the moth a chance to escape.
2. Slow-Motion Brain
Despite moths' ability to drink nectar from moving flowers while hovering in midair, a significant challenge occurs when an insect, reliant on sight, attempts this task in the darkness.
Meet the Manduca sexta, a remarkable species of hawkmoth with the incredible capability to slow down its brain. This extraordinary skill enables the hawkmoth to improve its vision in low-light environments while continuing to hover like a hummingbird and track its preferred flowers.
This process mimics a slower shutter speed in photography, allowing the moth’s brain to capture more light and process it for a longer duration, enhancing the moth’s ability to see.
This adaptation significantly reduces the moth’s reaction time. In a perfect environmental adjustment, the moth’s hovering speed slows only to match the speed at which its favorite flowers move. By decelerating its brain, the moth manages to continue feeding from and pollinating its preferred flowers, even during a dark, windy night.
1. Epic Puddler Anal Jets
Moths are often found around various fluids, including dung and even decaying flesh, engaging in a behavior known as puddling.
Mostly, it is the male moths that indulge in this activity, spending extended periods hungrily consuming their chosen liquids. One particular moth, Gluphisia septentrionis, takes this behavior to an extreme by shooting massive jets of water from its anus.
Many moths partake in this behavior because they require sodium, which they do not get enough of from their regular diet to survive and reproduce. To meet this need, the moths drink fluids to soak up sodium into their abdomens like sponges. Afterward, they expel the filtered water through their anuses.
Gluphisia septentrionis can release up to 20 jets of water per minute, with each jet traveling approximately 0.3 meters (1.0 ft) in length. In one experiment, scientists observed a moth expel 4,325 jets of water over 3.4 hours, amounting to 600 times its body weight.
During courtship, the male transfers about half of his sodium reserves to a female. She then passes the salt on to her offspring, ensuring the larvae's health. Researchers humorously refer to this as “salting their eggs.”
+ The Hamster With Wings
The Rhodinia fugax (commonly known as the squeaking silk moth) has such a fluffy appearance that it resembles a small, winged hamster. Its caterpillars make squeaking sounds, and even more astonishingly, the pupae squeak while inside their cocoons.
If the cocoon is disturbed or touched, it will emit a loud squeak. The cocoon, which has a wide opening at the top, is wrapped in a leaf-like structure that encloses the caterpillar inside.
Even though rainwater may flow into the cocoon, the caterpillar cleverly incorporates a drainage hole at the bottom during the weaving process. This ensures that the cocoon doesn’t fill with water and risk drowning the pupa inside.
