 Acrylic on illustration board 9" x 7" |
The Glover's silk moth (Hyalophora gloveri) is the Rocky Mountain equivalent of the well-known cecropia moth (H. cecropia) of the eastern U.S. I don't know much about this insect, having seen the adult moth about three times, only once as an adult myself. Like the other giant silk moths, the adult does not eat, living only for a few days -- long enough for a male to track down the chemical signals of a female and reproduce. The caterpillar spins a cocoon in late summer that overwinters; the moth emerges early the next summer. As a boy I found a cocoon of this species among the leaf litter beneath a hawthorn tree (Crataegus sp.). |