Little Isabella the Tiger Moth
Full Name: Isabella Tiger Moth
Size: Medium, about the size of a large strawberry.
Likes: Isabella enjoys flying toward the light.
Talent: She makes a special clicking noise to scare away dangerous predators.
Food: Isabella lives off the plants (now stored in her body for energy) which she ate as a caterpillar before she became a moth.
Where will you find Isabella? In gardens, meadows and forests. Locations: United States and Canada.
Caterpillar: Before becoming a tiger moth, Isabella started out as a cute, fuzzy caterpillar. Her nickname was “Woolly Bear” and she looked like this:
Talent: If disturbed, a woolly bear caterpillar will curl up into a fuzzy ball and “play dead” until danger is over.
Sometimes woolly bear caterpillars are kept as pets at home or in the classroom where they make a cocoon, hibernate for 10 to 15 days, and then come out as beautiful Isabella tiger moths.
Hector the Hawk Moth
Size: Huge, almost the size of your dinner plate!
Spots: Hector has five pairs of yellow spots on the sides of his tummy.
Likes: After the sun sets, he enjoys flying very fast and likes to quickly move back and forth while flying. Hector can fly 12 miles per hour! That’s faster than most kids riding a bike!
Talent: Hector can beat his wings very fast. This helps him hover in mid air while feeding on flower nectar. For this reason, he is sometimes nicknamed a “hummingbird moth”.
Food: Flowers that smell and taste good to Hector, examples: Honeysuckle, Phlox, Orchids Where will you find Hector? In gardens and the forest.
Locations: United States, Mexico and Southern Canada, but Hector’s relatives can also be found in Australia!
Grace the Garden Moth
Full Name: Grace the American Idia Garden Moth
Size: Small, about the size of a quarter. Likes: Flying at night.
Talent: Her wings blend in with the colors of tree trunks.
Food: Lichens are Grace’s favorite food. Lichens are a type of plant made out of fungus and algae that can be found on tree bark and rocks. There are many kinds of lichens. Here is a picture of one kind of lichen that Grace would eat:
Caribou and flying squirrels also eat lichen. Many birds use lichens for their nests.
Where will you find Grace? In the forest.
Locations: United States, Mexico and Canada
Lily the Luna Moth
Full Name: Lily the Luna Moth, an American Moon Moth
Size: Big, about the size of a cell phone.
Likes: Lily enjoys flying at night with her big wings. When she grows up, she likes to lay eggs. A mother luna moth can lay anywhere from 200-600 eggs – that is a lot of eggs! The eggs turn into baby luna moth caterpillars.
Talent: Lilly has pretty moon-shaped spots on her green wings and she can spin the tips of her wings to confuse and scare away bats.
Food: Lily lives off tree leaves (now stored in her body for energy) which she ate as a caterpillar before she became a moth.
Where will you find Lily? In the forest and woodlands. Sometimes luna moths are kept as pets at home or in the classroom.
Locations: United States and Canada
