In their natural habitat, Argema mittrei feeds on several plants, including Weinmannia ( Cunionaceae family), Upaca ( Phyllantaceae family), Eugenia cuneifolia ( Myrtaceae family) and Sclerocarya ( Anacardiaceae family). Larvae grow very slow and they need high humidity, constant temperature and a good ventilation. Rearing them from eggs can be challenging, especially if you’re a beginner. Looking at the climate where the Madagascan moon moth lives in wild is a clue to keep them correctly. Afterwards, Argema mittrei caterpillars can be placed in a rearing cage. Once hatched, the caterpillars can be reared in a plastic box until the third instar. It’s important to keep a high level of humidity by spraying them often. The female lays about 100-150 large eggs that hatch in about 3 weeks.
Obtaining eggs of Argema mittrei is not easy: they need to be hand-paired because the natural mating is very difficult to achieve in captivity: it requires lot of space and a high humidity level. Thus, the bat receives a dampened echo, and the moth becomes invisible to the bat. Female of Argema mittrei have significantly higher absorption factors than the males due to the absorption of a large portion by the wings and the body of the sound energy contained in a bat’s ultrasonic cry. Interesting facts: Their long hindwing tails (can be 15 cm long) are used as defensive mechanism deflecting bat attacks and diverting their cry tailed moths have 47% survival advantage over moths that have their hindwing tails ablated ( Barber et al., 2015). Rare aberrant specimen from the Time To Breed private collection Together with the Atlas moth ( Attacus atlas) and the Hercules moth ( Coscinocera hercules), Argema mittrei is one of the biggest species in the Saturniidae family.Īrgema mittrei adults have a huge wingspan of 20 cm (in the male), the wings are yellowish with brown markings and 4 eye spots used as aposematic defense. You can find more information about its distribution here. Argema mittrei: the comet mothĪrgema mittrei is a big Madagascan species described in 1847 it’s distributed in the rain forests of Madagascar, especially in the east part of the island.
Only Argema mittrei lives in Madagascar, the other species, like the popular Argema mimosae, live in mainland Africa. Argema is a genus in the Saturniidae family, it contains 4 species distributed in the African tropical forests.
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