Saga of the Flag Moth - Part 9

The first moths (a female and a male) emerged on the 7th of March, (Pictures 1 and 2). The last moth (a female) emerged on the 22nd of March). All emerged around midday, none at night or early morning. Emergence from the pupal case occurred in less than a minute (Pictures 3 and 4). The moths had their wings half extended in 14 minutes (Picture 5), fully extended at 31 minutes and ready to move and fly at 1 hour and 6 minutes (Last picture). We used Time Lapse Photography over several hours to catch the emergence sequence. In the pictures of the pupae, you can see the 2 pupal sizes, the larger size were all females (6 in total), the small size all males (8 in total). Because two molts occurred before pupation, we started with 3rd instar nymphs on the 28th of November 2012. Therefore, the life cycle between 3rd instar and adult was between 100 and 115 days. The female (Picture 1) has solid front wings and orange hind wings. The male (Picture 2) has large areas of both the front and hind wings clear. Both have the same color patterns on the head, thorax and abdomen. Details of the wing patterns do not match most other species of Dysschema.