Giant Peacock Moth

Saturnia pyri is the largest moth species in Europe — wingspan reaches 20 cm. The species belongs to family Saturniidae (the giant silk moths) and shares the family-typical biology: massive feathered antennae in males for pheromone detection, no functional mouthparts in adults (the species lives 4-7 days on caterpillar-stored fat reserves, mates, dies), and dramatic eyespot wing patterning. Each wing carries a single large eyespot ringed in concentric bands of black, red, blue, white, and gold — the 'peacock eye' that gives the species its common name. The species is found across continental Europe, North Africa, and parts of western Asia, primarily in lowland deciduous forest and orchard habitat. The caterpillar is bright green with blue-and-yellow tubercles and feeds on rosaceous trees including pear, apple, plum, walnut, and almond. Adults emerge in spring and are encountered at lights at night during the brief 4-7 day flight season. The species has historic significance in entomology: in his 1879 Souvenirs Entomologiques, Jean-Henri Fabre published the first systematic experimental demonstration of insect pheromones using S. pyri. Fabre placed a single newly emerged virgin female in a wire-mesh cage in his study and observed that within hours 40+ males arrived from distances up to 8 km away — even though the female was visually invisible (in a closed wire cage) and the males could not have homed in by sight. Fabre correctly inferred a chemical attractant — though it would take another 80 years for the first lepidopteran pheromone (bombykol from the silkworm moth) to be chemically identified by Adolf Butenandt in 1959.