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Madagascan moon moth

Argema mittrei

Description:

The male has a wingspan of twenty centimeters (8") and a tail span of fifteen centimeters (6"), making it one of the world's largest silk moths. They don't feed and only live 4 or 5 days.

Habitat:

rainforest

Notes:

Saw this moth at the campground at Ranomafana national park. One day it was alive, the next day dead. Many large moths don't feed and only live for less than a week.

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50 Comments (1–25)

SukanyaDatta
SukanyaDatta 3 years ago

I do so want to see one!

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 11 years ago

Arg i missed this one ! Extraordinary Dan.

Glen Marks
Glen Marks 11 years ago

Very impressive moth!

KrantiAzad
KrantiAzad 11 years ago

wow ! its stunning

injica
injica 11 years ago

Huge and amazing!!!

Smith Zoo
Smith Zoo 11 years ago

Amazing!!!

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 11 years ago

Thanks Mayra!

MayraSpringmann
MayraSpringmann 11 years ago

Wonderful!

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 11 years ago

Thanks Telse!

Telse
Telse 11 years ago

Beautiful!

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 11 years ago

Thank again Reiko. There are a lot of amazing moths on Noah, that's for sure. There are about 160,000 species of moth in the world.

RiekoS
RiekoS 11 years ago

This creature is absolutely beautiful. Thank you very much.
I saw so many different kinds of moths through Project Noah.
Would you know how many different kinds of moths in this world?

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 11 years ago

Thanks Atul and Thank you patty. I always enjoy your comments. It does have amazingly long tails. I'm glad I can keep surprising you.

patty
patty 11 years ago

What a wonderful moth Dandoucette! I had never imagined moths could have such a long tail; it is beautiful because of it and its nice color. There are so many amazing things around and your spottings always surprise me; it is like an artistic point of view of nature =)

Atul
Atul 11 years ago

superb series!

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 11 years ago

Thanks de.monick, eulalia and Carol. Hahaha Carol, it was a great adventure, better than the movie!

eulalia rubio
eulalia rubio 11 years ago

Beautiful.

CarolSnowMilne
CarolSnowMilne 11 years ago

Oh, so so beautiful! U are so fortunate. What a great adventure you had in Madagascar. (Not the movie, the book by Dan.) LOL

de.monick.18
de.monick.18 11 years ago

Beautiful...

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 11 years ago

Yup, it's in the book Carol, full page, thanks and thanks Jolly, sorry I missed that one.

CarolSnowMilne
CarolSnowMilne 11 years ago

Is this in your book. Say yes! Awesome!

Jolly Ibañez
Jolly Ibañez 11 years ago

Very nice spotting.

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 11 years ago

Thanks Sandra, Silje and jgorneau. That may be jgorneau but I have yet to spot Actias luna. I've just seen many on Noah.

Jacob Gorneau
Jacob Gorneau 11 years ago

I think you've got Actias luna beat here!

SiljeBare
SiljeBare 12 years ago

Oh my, that's an Amazing creature! :D

Dan Doucette
Spotted by
Dan Doucette

Fianarantsoa Province, Madagascar

Spotted on Jan 12, 2006
Submitted on Apr 12, 2011

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