All About Atlas Moths
The atlas moth entry in Animal Crossing. Credit: Ethan Wick
A few weeks ago, I was trying to decide upon a species to spotlight on my channel and website, so I reached out to someone that I can always trust to come up with interesting animals, my cousin. She gave me the atlas moth (Attacus atlas), which was entirely out of left field so to speak, but as soon as I began my research it immediately clicked where the suggestion came from. The top hits I got on my search were all Animal Crossing related, and my partner did confirm that they are currently (at time of writing) an insect that one can capture in-game once the sun departs the sky (something I cannot do because I do not own a Switch). Now, I would like to offer up a profile of the real-life animal that inspired the coveted pixels in the game that is holding my loved ones hostage.
Atlas moths are among the three largest moth species in the world, boasting a wingspan of 24 cm (9.4 in) with a surface area of 160 cm2. These massive animals have relatively small body compared to their wings, which makes them inefficient fliers, especially when one thinks about monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) that undertake a massive migration every year. Despite their wing to body proportion problem, these moths are beautiful to look at with their reddish-brown wings that sport black, white, pink, and purple markings that are said to resemble a map, which may have given them their name. They also have extensions at the tips of their wings that resemble the heads of snakes, which gave them their Cantonese name that translates to “snake’s head moth.”
The atlas moth (Attacus atlas) Credit: Quartl via Wikipedia.
These lovely moths can be found in dry tropical forests in south, east, and southeast Asia year-round, but the prime seasons to find them are spring and summer. Atlas moths are more active at night, likely to conserve energy flying since it takes a lot of energy to flap their massive wings. Males of the species are the ones that do the most flying, using their giant antennae to follow pheromone trails to a female so that they may breed and meet the end of their life. Once they do breed, the female lays eggs on the underside of the leaf of a food plant to kick off another turn on the moth/butterfly lifecycle.
The eggs hatch after a two week period and the spiny green caterpillars set off on their mission to feed on enough greenery to sustain their entire adult lives. During this period they feed upon the foliage citrus, guava, and evergreen trees and eventually reach a size of 11.5 cm (4.5 in) in length and 2.5 cm (1 in) in width before building their cacoon. Their cocoons are built with fragmented silk and dry leaves attached to twigs with strands of silk and average 7-8 cm in length. They spend four weeks in their cocoons depending on the environment around them and emerge as adults that lack mouths, meaning that the fat that they built up as caterpillars has to sustain their entire adult lives.
The caterpillar of the atlas moth (Attacus atlas). Credit: itchydogimages via flickr
Atlas moths are not a large part of any economy since the silk they produce is not of the same quality of domestic silkmoths. In Taiwan, their cocoons are occasionally used as coin purses because of their large size, and in other locations, moderate harvesting of their silk does take place. One more fun fact about this animal is that the Japanese subspecies may have been the inspiration for the movie monster Mothra.
No matter how one comes across atlas moths, be it in real life or Animal crossing, they are a species that proves that moths can be just as beautiful as their butterfly cousins.
References
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/spotlight-the-atlas-moth.html
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/125071-Attacus-atlas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacus_atlas
https://australianbutterflies.com/monster-moths-the-3-biggest-moths-in-the-world/
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/attacus-atlas-collection-photo/
