A beautiful Hyalophora cecropia. :)

Thanks for the id. I have seen a very large moth flying at night occasionally so now I know what it is.

I wonder if it is still alive and it will be gone in the morning.

Beautiful. The adults can't even eat -- live off body-fat just long enough to mate and the females lay their eggs.

the moral of this story is ...

dont destroy these: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Hyalophora+cecropia+pupae&t=ffcm&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

and dont wet yourself when you see these: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Hyalophora+cecropia+caterpillar&t=ffcm&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

and if they are decimating a beloved plant.. who cares.. im sure the plant can get over it ...

ken

That's a male (females have thinner antennae). I came across a couple cecropia cocoons this past winter and kept them until they emerged last week (both were females). One of the cocoons was on a buckthorn. The caterpillars will eat a number of different tree and shrub species. Around here they seem to favor black cherry, crabapple, maples (including boxelder), and ash.

arbordave, I had a cecropia cocoon overwintering in my room window as a kid (the windows were cold). In maybe May or so, got impatient and carefully cut open the cocoon & took out the pupae -- it was wriggling! Kinda guilty, I put it back in and taped up the cocoon. In a week or so, there was the emerged moth on a branch I had stuck in the jar in case in came out -- its wings were fully expanded & fine. Carefully took it outside & it flied away......

We often saw them (the large silkmoths) flying at street lights in our neighborhood when I was a kid, and it wasn't all that unusual to come across the caterpillars in our yards. I haven't seen the cecropias as frequently in recent years, so it was encouraging to see our 2 females call in 2 males the first night after they emerged. Also had some polyphemus cocoons hatch this year (5/19/21), they seem to be more common here than cecropias.

It sure seems to blend in with the floor boards

==>>> what it blends in with.. is tree bark .. which is very close in color to your untreated boards ...

but i understood your comment as to the pic...

ken

arbordave, I can tell you that the unadorned green caterpillars of the big moths are very good at camouflage. There was a huge one on my little pin oak sapling years ago. Despite the very small tree, when I'd go back to check on it, I often couldn't find it! Then suddenly I'd see it right in front of me -- just couldn't recognize it. The same thing happens w/the huge tomato hornworms -- very hard to "see".

About 10 years ago this was sitting on a plant in a garden centre around here.

I had no idea what it was, but when I put a finger in front of it, up it climbed. It was as 'tame' as I could wish, so we took it home to show our son.

It blends in better with floor boards than with crystal LOL. Our son was actually a bit creeped out by its big, hairy body, he prefers snakes ;-). Anyway, we looked at it, took pictures, and released it in the garden.

Beautiful male cecropia, in perfect condition - looks like it had just emerged from its cocoon that same day. Is that a Joe Pye weed he was sitting on?

This guy was on the ceiling at a local park shelter just this morning (male polyphemus).

Sorry, Dave, Houzz wouldn’t let me post 🤷‍♀️. It seems you see these big guys much more frequently than I do! I don’t know what plant it was perched on. It could be Joe Pye weed, with those whorled leaves, but it was at the nursery and I was focussing on that beautiful moth.