Io moth
The Io moth has a big black and blue eye spot on each back wing. When a bird comes close, it flashes these eyes to scare it away. Boy moths are bright yellow and girl moths are reddish brown or purple.
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Fun facts
Its name comes from Io, a girl in old Greek stories.
The baby caterpillars are orange and walk in a line, one behind the other, like a little train.
Older caterpillars turn bright green with a red and a white stripe along each side.
The grown-up moth lives only one or two weeks.
After it comes out of its cocoon, it pumps up its soft wings, which takes about twenty minutes.
Most asked questions about Io moth
?What does an Io moth eat?
The grown-up moth does not eat at all. The caterpillar eats leaves of many trees and bushes.
?How big is an Io moth?
Its wings are about 6 to 9 centimetres across.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Automeris io
- Named by
- Fabricius, 1775
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Saturniidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Saturniidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Peacock moth
Where the facts come from
- Automeris io (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Patrick Coin ( Patrick Coin ). CC BY-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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