Animalia > Arthropoda > Insecta > Lepidoptera > Saturniidae > Antheraea > Antheraea polyphemus

Antheraea polyphemus (polyphemus moth)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

The polyphemus moth (Antheraea polyphemus) is a North American member of the family Saturniidae, the giant silk moths. It is a tan-colored moth, with an average wingspan of 15 cm (6 in). The most notable feature of the moth is its large, purplish eyespots on its two hind wings. The eye spots give it its name – from the Greek myth of the Cyclops Polyphemus. The species is widespread in continental North America, with local populations found throughout subarctic Canada and the United States. The caterpillar can eat 86,000 times its weight at emergence in a little less than two months.
View Wikipedia Record: Antheraea polyphemus

Infraspecies

Attributes

Wing Span [1]  4.921 inches (.125 m)

Ecosystems

Prey / Diet

Predators

Providers

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Compsilura concinnata (Tachina fly)[3]
Eurithia anthophila[3]
Lespesia frenchii[3]
Winthemia quadripustulata[3]

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Polyphemus Moth Antheraea polyphemus (Cramer) (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Saturniidae: Saturniinae), Donald W. Hall, University of Florida, August 2012
2HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
3Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
4Study of Northern Virginia Ecology
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0