A Moth more beautiful than a butterfly! A dream come true! I finally saw (and felt) the elusive "Spanish Luna Moth" in the wild

in #nature5 years ago (edited)

Spanish Luna Moth(1).jpg

A dream come true... I am having a rare Spanish Luna Moth on my face, a species I have wanted to see for a long time. It's not bred but a wild one as they live in my region. Picture was taken at midnight a few weeks ago, so even if it is not the best due to light conditions, for me it's a very special one and I'm going to tell you a little bit about this rare and beautiful species that almost look like out of the pages of a fairytale. How did this happen? And some curiosities about this "Ghost fairy"... keep on reading!

It is not secret for my readers here that I love moths, I even dress often like one or they're mentioned recurrently in the lyrics of my songs. They also appear in many of my drawings...

I live now in Navarre, North of Spain, and here there is a particular species, famous worldwide for its beauty but living only were I live... sounds lucky, right? But I had not had the chance to see it yet. That dreams recently came true :)

Here is a link to a little video on twitter of me painting moths, moths and moths and going a bit nuts about them (by the way I must rescue and finish that painting). I could not attach the video here but you can see it in this link:
https://twitter.com/i/status/903726971141537792

springfairy.jpg

xorroxin waterfall - by Priscilla Hernandez (yidneth.com)-2.jpg
Above: me by Xorroxin Waterfall wearing my Spanish Luna Moth wings (made by my friends from El Costurero Real)

A very rare and beautiful Moth Species

The Spanish Moon Moon Graellsia Isabellae is a rare and large moth Graellsia isabellae, the Spanish moon moth, is in the silkmoth family Saturniidae. The genus only has this species. The moth was first discovered by Mariano de la Paz Graëlls y de la Aguera in 1846.

There are not enough data yet to know how threatened the species may be but it can only be found in some parts of Spain and France. Now mostly in Spain and some areas in Switzerland. I happen to be lucky in enough to live in a region where they can be found. They eat needles from Pine trees and do you remember I often visit some deer to feed them... they can be found in that forest precisely.

graellsia_isabellae.jpg

Above: Male Graellsia Isabellae on pine bark taken last 3rd of May :)

The adults are out April-June. Adults don't eat, their only pupose is to mate and lay eggs. A few weeks ago a conservationist group organized an activity to spot Graellsias, and having tried on my own for two years in a row without success, even knowing a particular grove that is considered a reservoir of the species (just had seen them fluttering quickly now and then) I decided to join and they set up a white sheet and special lights (mercury lamps) in order to attract them (and other moth friends).

##Attracting the moths with Mercury Vapur Lamps and Why do Moths fly to light?

moth_light_collecting.jpg

Above: Setting up mercury vapour lamps which are the most used to attract moths. Why are moths attracted to light is explained by their sense of orientation. In a behavior called transverse orientation, some insects navigate by flying at a constant angle relative to a distant light source, such as the moon and some artificial lights confuses them in their navigation messing their compass. It is very well known that Moths have "Positive Phototaxis", they move "towards" the light- Also it's thought them to have an "escape" mechanism as it's likely less dangerous to fly upwards (towards the light) in order to escape. It's also known that once there they come to the light tend to stay around it because they become "blinded" by it. We play that in our advantage as they perched on our white sheet.

But you know moths fly to light when they're blind in delight (from my own song Nothing)

So we stood a few hours in the cold... We suspected not many moths would come (and in fact there were some cute furry visitors but it wasn't a crowdy night. We shared some snacks and chatted with the others while "Asociación Zerynthia" (the organizers) explained some facts about moths in general and about the prejudices against them. But were we meant to see the elusive species that night?

Most people were already giving up when suddenly a Graellsia appeared, with its slow graceful flutter. It was a male. People cheered and we all stood very quiet in order not to tread on it. Minutes later another male followed. Once they landed and calmed down we observed and took pictures, and finally with the supervision of the entomologists we took these portraits of me with one on my face :)

spanishlunamoth (1).jpg

Soooo cute and it felt ticklish!

graellsiasonface.jpg

A few more interesting facts

There is a clear dimorphism between male and female. The male have feathery antennae and wing tails. Those antennae help the male to "smell" in order to find a suitable female to mate.

So maybe we have that misconceptions of moths as discoloured

These are my own lyrics from my song "At the Dreams Door" but not true at all :) because, can't they be more beautiful? Their wings look almost like a stained glass, kind of translucent against the light.

spanishlunamoth (5).jpg

Like stained glass

Will I emerge as butterfly into the vibrant daylight
or am I doom to be the moth as colourless as before

Or maybe you were never such colourless being, maybe you were the most precious of them all, if someone would look to under the light

I'm so thrilled that I'm repeating the experience again in a week fro now, hopefully bringing better light.

spring (2).jpg

My Network

Networks


Priscilla Hernandez
singer-songwriter & illustrator
http://yidneth.com

Sort:  

It's been a while since I've visited, but this again is one beautiful post! Thanks for sharing the beauty of Graellsia Isabellae with us; not likely I'll ever meet one here up north in The Netherlands... And it's a beautiful creature indeed. :-)

Aw thanks for taking the time to leave a comment, they are indeed so beautiful. I have been obsessed with moths a long time, as a child I used to breed silkmoths, I think it comes since then. Moths and ratties (I'm advocate for the critters of the night). Well I haven't posted in nearly a month (though previous post was very special for me I think) but I always find my way here. It's kind of quiet though :) will make sure to come tomorrow and catch up with what's up new with everyone :)

Those are real pretty, glad you got to experience one! Here in the states, the Luna Moths don't have the stripes and the spots are purple.

Your Luna Moths are so ethereal and pretty too, but they are not even the same Genus, they just look alike Actias Luna is yours, Graellsia Isabelae ours. They very very rare to spot, and have a very scarce distribution so I am lucky to be at the right "spot". Thanks for reading, it was thrilling. I wish I could breed moths to film them while unfurling, not these ones, these belong to the wild.

Wow, @yidneth! A Spanish Luna Moth <3 What a beautiful creature * ___ * I can feel your excitement and gorgeous energies through this post :D

I love your outfit with the luna moth wings, also <3 The photographs are very lovely and you are very beautiful as luna moth/ghost fairy persona * ___ *

Very wonderful occasion, and I am glad you had the experience of meeting this exquisite creatures in the wild <3 The photos are so magical ! I love its green wings very, very much <3

hahah I guess I couldn't kept the thrill while writing hahah :) I was like awww, aww it tickles, awww it's furry, aww the feathery antennae, awww LOL hahah like seriously :) It was a male, there were two male only coming (we´ll repeat in a week and see if I can spot a female) @hedac said, maybe "he" got confused with you wearing those wig... a big female spanish luna hahahah LOL hahah just kidding!

so pretty your little moth friend

isn't he handsome? aww

Wow... I can imagine how amazing that must have been to finally see one and have it on your face, very happy for you!!! It is a gorgeous Moth indeed, great pics <3

It was a male one and I was wearing graellsia wings, maybe he was confused? hahah LOL now seriously such a "handsome" fellow. The pic is not the best, but considering we were with no suitable photography light and it was past midnight LOL hahah XD they're ok enough and they capture the mood and the memory which is the best part of it.


This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
@c-squared runs a community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here

Sup Dork?!? Enjoy the Upvote!!!

Congratulations @yidneth! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You made more than 7500 comments. Your next target is to reach 8000 comments.

You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:

New japanese speaking community Steem Meetup badge
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!

Amazing post but that is to be expected. :)

Oh and tell your friends awesome job on the wardrobe. Looks amazing.

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.35
TRX 0.12
JST 0.040
BTC 70797.92
ETH 3553.00
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.76