It's fairly substantial - feels far less flexible than, say, a cecropia cocoon, which is all I really have experience with as far as these bigger cocoons go. A litte give to the sides, but not squishy. Feels like heavy parchment paper. And as mentioned, it has some weight - I think there's still a live one in there.

Would love to see some lunas around here - think I've seen a total of 3 in about 25 years! But I have seen them here.

Thanks for your input.

Alex

Definitely sounds like a polyphemus. Polys are quite common and will eat a lot of different things, including walnut. I even had one eating a burning bush in my yard a few years ago:

Well, that would be cool, too! Haven't seen but a few of those either in all these years here. Your pic of the caterpillar looks familiar. Will keep it around and watch for developments. Not going anywhere until the middle of May - lol.

Alex

That's odd; your other comment has disappeared - did you do that yourself when you commented again?

Yes, when I added the follow up comment I noticed that my original comment somehow got posted twice, so I attempted to delete one of them, which apparently was a mistake because they both disappeared. I've reported the issue to Houzz. Here's my best recall of the original comment:

It's hard to tell how solid the cocoon is from the photos. Poly cocoons are thicker and more substantial, luna cocoons are thinner and more flexible. Since it was found under a walnut I’m guessing luna since walnut is one of their preferred food plants.

Followup to my own comment: it's ALIVE!!! Bwahahahaha!

Have got it sitting here on the edge of my PC, and a bit ago, as I was typing an email, it started rocking. :)

Excellent! But keep in mind that it will emerge much sooner than its buddies if you keep it indoors.

Good point. Will set it outside, but might put a temporary cage over it when i'm not around - would really like to see it when it emerges. Did this a few years back with a cecropia which turned out to be female. Got to see and photograph it and the male who came to visit. Tried to find my photos in my own files, but it fell into a period of time when i had computer breakdowns. However, here's the link to the post i made back then at GardenWeb: cecropia mating

Arbordave - you had it right first time - it's a Polyphemus; just emerged last night:

Am thinking female because of less bushy antennae and the bulky body? Here's a closer shot; not a great shot, as I didn't want to keep disturbing her after I moved her out of the outdoor cage, since she was still firming her wings. Will go out tonight and see if she's still there on the tree and has any visitors:

Yes, a female. You should see some "visitors" tonight. I've set caged female polys out overnight a number of times, and IME the male is often gone by morning. With cecropias on the other hand (IME) it's not unusual to see multiple males still flying around at first light before the female pairs with one of them.

Yeah, figured I'd take a look before bed, but not going to worry about it otherwise. I got to have the experience of seeing and photographing the mating of the cecropias - which was seriously cool :) - imagine it will be much the same deal with this poly - she's a pretty girl. Glad I was able to experience another emergence.

Alex