White Witch Moth

Thysania agrippina — the white witch moth — has the longest wingspan of any insect on Earth, with verified specimens measuring up to 31 cm tip-to-tip. Although the atlas moth (Attacus atlas) and Hercules moth (Coscinocera hercules) have larger wing surface AREA, neither has the linear span of T. agrippina. The species is mottled silver, gray, brown, and black in a pattern that closely matches the wet bark of Central American rainforest trees, where the moths roost during the day. Despite the dramatic size and wide range (southern Mexico, Central America, all of tropical South America, occasionally as a vagrant in the southern US), the species is surprisingly poorly known: the natural host plant of the caterpillar has not been definitively identified, and the only confirmed observation of the larval stage was a captive-rearing event in which the moth was incidentally raised on Cassia legumes. Adults are nocturnal, fly with a slow gliding flight, and feed on rotting fruit (the species is known to be attracted to fermenting bait traps in field studies). The species belongs to family Erebidae, which also contains the closely related calf moths (Ascalapha odorata, the famous 'black witch' of Mexican folklore), tussock moths, and tiger moths. The white witch is a flagship species of Neotropical lepidopteran biodiversity and a regular subject of nature documentary work.