Atlas Moth (Attacus lorquini)

Atlas Moth  

Family : Attacus lorquini

    The world's largest moth in overall size. Distinctively shaped, its wings are richly patterned with various  shades of brown and transparent white. The sexes are similar but the male is smaller than the female.
     

      Mating Atlas Moth. The smaller one (foreground) is a male.

As soon as they get out of the cocoon, they have to mate immediately to fertilize the eggs. The next day the female lays a couple of dozens of eggs then dies after 3 to 5 days as it has no mouthpiece .

The underside

The upperside

The Eggs hatches after 8 days

 A day old caterpillar 

It feeds on various hostplants such as Sugar apple, Guyabano, Santol etc. This caterpillars feeds on a tree planted  along the roadside going up to the Pueblo de Panay Shrine.

An 11 days old caterpillar

 A fully matured caterpillar on its last instar. This photo was featured as the spotting of the last December 20, 2012 on Project noah - http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/17073222