I found this Polyphemus moth struggling on the asphalt after a robin attack. I saved it. I saved it like this:
I was looking out the window. Then a robin jumped to the fence and pecked at something. It was a Polyphemus moth! So I ran to the basement, grabbed my shoes and rushed outside. I scared the robin and caught the moth. We thought it was too mangled to live in the wild. So we kept it.
Polyphemus moths are large silk moths that are endemic to North America. They have spots that look like eyes that startle some birds long enough for the moth to get away. (But the robin that attacked it was not scared at all.)
These moths flight pattern is a series of slow and deep wingbeats finished by a short gliding period. Their main predators are large mantids and spiders, bats, and the small-sized saw-whet owls.
To tell apart the males from females, this is the advice:
The females have less bushy antennae than the males, which is shown here:
Later, we wanted to check if the moth can fly with a mangled wing. So we woke it up, and put it on the floor. It was beating its wings against the rug and suddenly… WHOOSH!! It took off and flew 4 feet from the ground. Then it landed on the windowsill.
This is the first Polyphemus moth we caught on our porch. We kept it for a little while, and then let it go so it could lay some eggs. Good I did, because there may be others! It was a female! So I think the moth we found more recently was the moth that hatched from the eggs laid by the previous one.
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