''Attacus atlas'', the Atlas moth, is a large saturniid

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of ...

endemic to the forests of Asia. The

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

in his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''.

Description

The Atlas moth is one of the largest

lepidopterans Lepidoptera ( ) is an order of insects that includes butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 families and 46 superfamilies, 10 percent of the total described specie ...

, with a wingspan measuring up to and a wing surface area of about 160 cm² (≈25 in²). It is only surpassed in wingspan by the

white witch Jadis is the main antagonist of ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'' (1950) and '' The Magician's Nephew'' (1955) in C. S. Lewis's series, ''The Chronicles of Narnia''. She is commonly referred to as the White Witch in ''The Lion, the Witch a ...

(''Thysania agrippina'') and ''

Attacus caesar ''Attacus caesar'' is a moth in the family (biology), family Saturniidae. It is found in the southern Philippines. and in wing surface area by the Hercules moth (''Coscinocera hercules''). As in most Lepidoptera, females are noticeably larger and heavier than males, while males have broader antennae. The body is disproportionately small compared to the wings. The upperside of the wings are reddish brown with a pattern of black, white, pink, and purple lines and triangular, scale-less windows bordered in black. The undersides of the wings are paler. Both forewings have a prominent extension at the tip, with markings that resemble the head of a snake, a resemblance which is exaggerated by movements of the wings when the moth is confronted by potential predators. The Atlas moth has a very short, vestigial proboscis, and they do not eat once they have emerged from the cocoon, relying on fat storage for energy. Every flight takes valuable energy and can take days off their already short lives, as it has a very short life span of only one to two weeks. They conserve energy by flying as little as possible. A female will wait for a male to come along and be fertilised, lay eggs and die.

Habitat

Their

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

is primarily dry

tropical forest Tropical forests (a.k.a. jungle) are forested landscapes in tropical regions: ''i.e.'' land areas approximately bounded by the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing winds. Some tropical fo ...

secondary forests A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. I ...

, and

shrublands Spring Park is a small area in London, England. It is within the London Borough of Bromley and the London Borough of Croydon, straddling the traditional Kent- Surrey border along The Beck. Spring Park is located north of Addington, west of West ...

across

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;; ...

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...

, and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

, including

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java Isl ...

. This species has been found outside of its native range on at least two occasions. An adult female was found in 2012 in

Ramsbottom Ramsbottom is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. The population at the 2011 census was 17,872. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the River Irwell in the West Pennine Moors, northwest of Bury ...

, England after it landed on a

windowsill A windowsill (also written window sill or window-sill, and less frequently in British English, cill) is the horizontal structure or surface at the bottom of a window. Window sills serve to structurally support and hold the window in place. The ...

, and is presumed to have escaped from a private collection. Another specimen was photographed in

Bellevue, Washington Bellevue ( ) is a city in the Eastside (King County, Washington), Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area and has v ...

in July 2022, the first time this species has been detected in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

Etymology

Atlas moths are named after

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geograp ...

, the Titan of

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of ...

(due to their size). In

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, the

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

means "snake's head moth", referring to the prominent extension of the forewing which bears resemblance to the head of a

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

Life cycle

Mating

Females release powerful

pheromone A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavio ...

s through a gland on the end of the

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the tors ...

to attract a mate. The female does not stray far from the location of her discarded

cocoon Cocoon may refer to: *Cocoon (silk), a pupal casing made by moth caterpillars and other insect larvae *Apache Cocoon, web development software * ''Cocoon'' (film), a 1985 science fiction-fantasy film **'' Cocoon: The Return'', 1988 sequel to ''Coco ...

. She seeks out a perch where the air currents will best carry her pheromones. Males can detect and home in on these pheromones from several kilometers away using

chemoreceptor A chemoreceptor, also known as chemosensor, is a specialized sensory receptor which transduces a chemical substance (endogenous or induced) to generate a biological signal. This signal may be in the form of an action potential, if the chemorecep ...

s located on their feathery antennae. Once fertilized, the female lays a number of spherical

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s, in diameter, on the undersides of the leaves of food plants.

Larva

Dusty-green

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larva, larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterfly, butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawfly ...

s hatch after approximately two weeks and feed voraciously on the foliage of

citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. The genus ''Citrus'' is nati ...

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus '' Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, brea ...

guava Guava () is a common tropical fruit cultivated in many tropical and subtropical regions. The common guava '' Psidium guajava'' (lemon guava, apple guava) is a small tree in the myrtle family (Myrtaceae), native to Mexico, Central America, ...

, and

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

trees. The caterpillars can grow to in length and in thickness. They are adorned with white, waxy, fleshy spines along their backs, which become more prominent at later

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow o ...

s. Beside the

proleg A proleg is a small, fleshy, stub structure found on the ventral surface of the abdomen of most larval forms of insects of the order Lepidoptera, though they can also be found on other larval insects such as sawflies and a few other types of i ...

s on the last abdominal segment, there is a large green spot surrounded by an orange ring. The majority of the time their first meal is their egg-shell.

Pupa

After reaching a length of about , the caterpillars are ready to

pupa A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

te. They spin a 7–8 cm long papery

interwoven with desiccated leaves and attach it to a twig using a strand of silk. The adult moths emerge from the cocoon after approximately four weeks depending on environmental factors.

Imago

Adult Atlas moths are weak, unsteady fliers. To conserve energy, the moths rest during the day and fly at night. As they lack fully formed

mouthparts Mouthparts may refer to: * The parts of a mouth ** Arthropod mouthparts *** Insect mouthparts {{disambig ...

, the adults cannot eat, subsisting entirely on fat reserves accumulated during the larval stage. As a result, they live for only a few days during which their sole objective is seeking out a mate. Adults may be found on wing throughout the year but are most abundant between November and January.

Relationship with humans

Japanese Biological Education Society in 1959

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

, Atlas moths are cultivated for their

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the ...

in a non-commercial capacity. Unlike silk produced by the related domestic silkmoth (''Bombyx mori''), Atlas moth silk is secreted as broken strands and is therefore less desirable. This brown, wool-like silk, known as ''fagara'', is thought to have greater durability. Atlas moth

s are sometimes used as small pocket change purses in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

. There is ongoing research as to whether the silk of the Atlas moth can be used as a substitute for common silks. The quality of the heavier cocoons, less restrictive rearing conditions and competent properties of the fibers, makes the silk produced by the Atlas moth a potential alternative for common silks. A study concluded that the silk fibers of the atlas moth had about an 80% higher density of cells and growth compared to the silk fibers of the silk moth. The Japanese subspecies ''A. a. ryukyuensis'', native to

Yonaguni , one of the Yaeyama Islands, is the westernmost inhabited island of Japan, lying from the east coast of Taiwan, between the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean proper. The island is administered as the town of Yonaguni, Yaeyama Gun, Okinawa ...

in the

Yaeyama Islands The Yaeyama Islands (八重山列島 ''Yaeyama-rettō'', also 八重山諸島 ''Yaeyama-shotō'', Yaeyama: ''Yaima'', Yonaguni: ''Daama'', Okinawan: ''Yeema'', Northern Ryukyuan: ''Yapema'') are an archipelago in the southwest of Okinawa P ...

, may have served as inspiration for the movie monster

Mothra is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', that first appeared in the 1961 film '' Mothra'', produced and distributed by Toho Studios. Mothra has appeared in several Toho ''tokusatsu'' films, most often as a recurring character in the ''Godzilla'' ...

Similar taxa

The term "Atlas moth" is sometimes used mistakenly as a name for any species in the genus ''

Attacus ''Attacus'' is a genus of moths in the family Saturniidae. The genus was named by Carl Linnaeus in his 1767 12th edition of ''Systema Naturae''.

'', of which there are over 20 named species and subspecies. ''

Attacus taprobanis ''Attacus taprobanis'' is a moth of family Saturniidae. It is native to southern India and Sri Lanka. This species is very similar in morphology to the much more widely distributed ''Attacus atlas''. It was once considered a subspecies of ''A. at ...

'' native to

southern India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territ ...

and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

is very similar in morphology to the much more widely distributed ''Attacus atlas''. It was once considered a subspecies of ''A. atlas''. A few

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

species can be mistaken for Atlas moths, specifically members of the genus ''

Rothschildia ''Rothschildia'' is a genus of moths in the family Saturniidae first described by Augustus Radcliffe Grote in 1896. Species are found in North America and South America from the United States to Argentina. Species *''Rothschildia amoena'' Jorda ...

''. Very similar in appearance to the Asian Atlas moth, ''

Rothschildia aurota ''Rothschildia'' is a genus of moths in the family Saturniidae first described by Augustus Radcliffe Grote in 1896. Species are found in North America and South America from the United States to Argentina. Species *'' Rothschildia amoena'' Jo ...

'' is one of the largest members of its genus and a

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bi ...

relative.

References

External links

{{Authority control Moths of Asia Silk Moths described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Saturniidae Invertebrates of Malaysia Fauna of Yunnan

Description

Habitat

Etymology

Life cycle

Mating

Larva

Pupa

Imago

Relationship with humans

Similar taxa

See also

References

External links