Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Today we found a huge (about 3 inches long body length, maybe 5-6 inch wingspan) bright orange fat furry moth. The face(head?) is furry looking with white stripes, appears to have 6 legs? legs are also furry.
The wings are very large, greyish black striped alternating with orange and about 9-10 white spots some appearing larger oval shaped. They are triagluar shaped and fold back over the body, so that it is more shaped like a triangle,or v shape than a typical butterfly or moth shape. It seems to be very quick moving with its wings. I am in NJ and this was found in a parking lot on somebodys car tire. It appeared to be dying and so we collected into a jar, and has since appeared to have many active moments. Now there are very many eggs laid in the jar, possibly 20 or more, and I am not sure to let it go or keep the lid off so the moth can access eggs. What to do? Does anyone know what this is? Let me know if there is anything that I can tell you to help. I would really appreciate it and so would my 6 yo son who is very into wildlife and loves to study all animals and bugs. We spent 3 hours online looking at pictures of moths trying to identify it.

I only have a minute so I can't i.d yet but two things:

Can you get a picture of it and upload it online?
If not, let it go. She needs no access to the eggs; once they are laid they are on their own. Female moths abort their eggs within about 3 days if they do not mate so these may, or may not. be fertile. If they are fertile it is only fair for her to have access to the outdoors in order to lay them. What color are the eggs?

If it is that large it is most likely a giant silk moth (luna, cecropia, etc.) Here is a site with the Saturniidae (silks) of NJ. Even if one only seems close do a search on google images (click images tab on www.google.com site and then type in/paste the moth you are looking for) for more views. Unfortunately, once a moth is dead and pinned it looks much different than alive so be sure to cross-reference. I raise the silks so if it is one I can be of more help later

I'll check back later

lele

p.s. I live in NH so we have similar moths here

thanks, I let it go and left the jar open in the grass so if she wants the eggs. I do not have access to post pictures, so I am glad for the help. My son really enjoyed it though, and we learned alot more that we knew about moths. Oh and the eggs were very small and white. We would still love to know what it was, i did not understand what website you meant, but I did do image search on google and saw some beautiful moths, but none like what we saw. Thank you

sorry about that! try this:
Moths of North America (NJ)

...how about this!?
Regal moth

that is it!!! We let it go last night, and I am hoping that maybe she will stick around here so we could maybe spot her.
My kids were thrilled to see it and read about it. Thank you.

Neat! I have never seen a live on - only photos. they are becoming rare in parts of the northeast so that was a lucky find for you!!

what did you do with the eggs? If they are fertile you could have a very cool experience in rearing them....let me know