697 Large Female at ~130 mm wingspan (>5 inches). Flying and laying eggs June 16, 2007. Insects (Insecta) Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera) Moths Bombycoidea Giant Silkworm and Royal Moths (Saturniidae) Silkmoths (Saturniinae) Saturniini Antheraea Polyphemus Moth - Hodges#7757 (Antheraea polyphemus)Note the egg stuck on hind wing margin. Quickly took a couple of pictures and put her back out to finish her life mission. A beautiful moth in many features such as the fore wing spots which look and reflect like aluminum foil inserts.
Imperial Moth eggs about to hatch. At this point you can see that each egg contains a tiny caterpillar neatly rolled up (the big black spot is the head).These were photographed against a scale of millimetres; the two short parallel lines at the right bottom angle of the photo are 1 mm apart. So the eggies probably measure 3 2.5 mm (0.11 0.09 in), more or less.Freshly laid eggs are greenish, opaque, with a pearly sheen, and are expelled together with a sort of glue that dries up on the spot, attaching them to any surface they happen to touch. Huevos de polilln Eacles imperialis a punto de eclosionar. En este punto del desarrollo se puede ver que cada huevo contiene una oruguita prolijamente enrollada sobre s misma (la mancha negra grande es la cabeza).La foto se sac sobre una regla milimetrada; las dos rayitas negras paralelas del ngulo inferior derecho de la foto marcan 1 mm, as que los huevitos deberan medir unos 3 2,5 mm, ms o menos.Los huevos recin puestos son opacos, verdosos, con un brillo perlado, y la mariposa los pone junto con una especie de pegamento que se seca al segundo, pegando los huevitos a cualquier superficie que toquen.Eacles imperialis opaca, ovaEnglish: Imperial Moth