Actias Luna... Yellow?

Galaxy-Moth

Hi,

My Luna Moths are in full Pride right now and i started noticing things i never seen in any breed before.

At first i noticed this year my luna caterpillars diddnt share the 2 color morphs in f1 stage. They all were the black-green form.

Then as Moths

Males and females are easily distinguishable by color. My females are torquoise and Males Green. I never had it that obvious. Also the Tailsizes are mixed up this time. (Males short amd females long)

Now the thing that really stunned me.

Just now a new Male emerged and he completely looks different. The tails are longer than the other males. This one has a stripe along the widh of the wings and also almost fully Yellow with slightest hints of green.

If anyonevknows how that happened im happy to learn.

Merlin

Hello Jan,

I don't know how the yellow and green color in Actias luna is created. I don't know the genetics.

In most cases green color is a structural color. https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/22…ructural-colors

A different kind of green color using liquid between two layers has been reported two years ago.

New molecular insights into butterfly pigmentation

Hanly et al.1 and Nishida et al.2 use distinct approaches to provide exceptional lessons regarding the genetic, molecular, morphological, and biochemi…

www.sciencedirect.com

But I really don't know what triggered the color-switch in Actias luna. There maybe an environmental, like temperature or a genetic basis.

SG

Galaxy-Moth

Oh wow that is really interesting!

Thanks for pointing that out!

I keep the male a little colder atm in hope a new female emerges as long as he is able to breed. Sadly most hatched by now and just the late ones wait for emergance.

I hope i can breed the yellow male and rais the caterpillars of him in a sperated container to see if some of the offspring shares some traits.

Best wishes

Actias Luna... Yellow?

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