The Saturniid Giant Silk Moths

These are the "divas" of the moth world. From the Cecropia, our largest flying insect, to the diminutive but very fluffy Rosy Maple Moth, each one is a memory from childhood, a discovery that leaves us breathless. How do you think these compare to the much more often celebrated butterflies?

By popular demand, we will be adding adult moth image panels to our traveling "The Caterpillar Lab" exhibits in 2017. I resisted doing this for a long time for a few reasons. I wanted to specifically highlight the caterpillars as important and interesting organisms, independent of their adult counterparts, and I felt that showing the adults could take away from this message. I also wanted to show adult moths and butterflies as more than just a pair of pretty wings. Much of the photography available was of flat dorsal shots of the spread wings, with little or nothing hinting at the creature below. So I started taking stage photographs of my own backyard moths last season and we now have enough to go on to start something new in 2017! I'm looking forward to seeing how these simple images will affect the dynamics of a TCL program.

I really should cut this music thing out - but once you start exploring the free youtube libraries, weird stuff happens...

- Sam TCL Director