I received a telephone call the other day and the caller asked me if she brought a "very big, green caterpillar" up to the center if it could be identified. I assured her I would do my best to figure out what it is. As I hung up, I already had an idea what it was, "sight unseen."

When she came in with her husband and the caterpillar, I took one look at it and knew right away it was a Luna moth caterpillar. When I told her what her critter was, she just shook her head and said, "You are remarkable!"I don't know about remarkable, but I recognize about 10 different caterpillars and I got lucky with this one. Sometimes I have to open several field guides to figure out what a critter is, but sometimes I just know.I told her I wasn't sure what to do for the caterpillar other than offer some tasty sweet gum leaves, so I was going to stop in at the Bear Mountain Butterfly Sanctuary and leave it with my good friend Mari Gruber. She was very relieved that this caterpillar would be in good hands and thanked me again for helping her out.I took about 15 minutes out of my day taking quite a few photographs of this amazing-looking caterpillar because I knew I probably wouldn't get the chance again. This was my second encounter with these beauties so I wanted to be sure to get a few photos.The female lays 40-600 eggs on the underside of leaves in small clusters and the larva hatch out in about 8-13 days. The larva of the Luna moth are bright green with a light brown head, narrow yellow lines down the body and are covered with spots of orange, pink and black.The green camouflage of the adults and the caterpillars help conceal them in the green foliage during the day. Once hatched, the first instar begins and it will go through about five instars, so the tiny caterpillar has just one job to do - eat! As it eats it outgrows its exoskeleton, which it sheds, beginning a second instar and so on. After the fifth instar they create their cocoon by wrapping one layer of leaves in a thin silk covering.The cocoon is spun among the leaves of the host plant but is not anchored to a twig like the cocoons of other moths. When the leaves fall to the ground in autumn the cocoon falls to the ground as well and is sheltered in the leaf litter. In April the adults will emerge from their cocoons in April to start the whole life cycle over.The adult Luna moth has no mouth parts and does not eat during its brief life. They only live for about one week as adults, and during this time their only purpose is to find a mate. Luna moths can be found in deciduous woodlands. The leaves of trees like hickory, birch, willow walnut and sweet gum are the host plants the larva feed off.Sexual dimorphism is the difference in size or appearance between the sexes of an animal. Some of the differences between male and female Luna moths include the females are larger; males are a lighter shade of green with antenna that are larger, wider and with a more feathered appearance than the females.The Luna moth is one of the largest moths in North America, with a wingspan of up to 5 inches wide. It makes sense that adult Luna moths are very strong fliers considering the size of their wings. The pale green wings have a purple margin along the front edges, with four eyespots on the wings that help to confuse predators into thinking that it is even larger than it is or that it is something else other than a helpless moth.Luna moths are a common food source for bats, so to protect themselves the moths spin the tails of their wingtips in circles. This confuses the bats so much so that the moths are often able to escape. Their wing "tails" are decoys that trick hungry bats; they are the moth's anti-predator deflection strategy. As one journal article I read stated, "It is strategically better to lose a tail than a head." I suppose no one can argue with that.Is this nature's version of "Tails you lose; heads I win?"The Carbon County Environmental Education Center is located at 151 E. White Bear Drive, Summit Hill. Call 570-645-8597 for information.