Luna Moth
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40 free Luna Moth trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The luna moth is one of the most recognisable insects in North America: lime-green wings, long trailing tails and a habit of turning up at a porch lamp on a warm night. Yet most people only ever see one once or twice, and almost everything about its life is stranger than it looks. This quiz turns the best luna moth fun facts into questions. It covers the adult's short and unusual life, how males and females find each other, the caterpillar's food trees and defences, the cocoon and the change inside it, the moth's name and its relatives around the world, and its appearances in popular culture. It is pitched for curious readers of any age: people who have just found a green moth on the door, students working on an insect project, and anyone who wants a surprising fact to share.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which everyday activity can an adult luna moth never do, because of the way its body is built?
Eating
Eating is impossible because adult luna moths have only shrunken, useless mouthparts. They exist just long enough to mate and lay eggs.
Q 02The long, spinning hindwing tails of the luna moth evolved to fool which night-hunting predators?
Bats
Bats aim their sonar at the twirling tails instead of the body, striking them in about 55 percent of attacks. In tests, moths with tails survived far more often than clipped ones.
Q 03Once a luna moth leaves its cocoon as a winged adult, roughly how long does it have left to live?
About a week
About a week is all an adult luna moth gets, which is why this common species is so seldom seen. Every hour goes on finding a mate and laying eggs.
Q 04An animated luna moth fluttered through 2007 television commercials for which prescription sleep aid?
Lunesta
Lunesta shares its mascot with a field guide to the moths of eastern North America, which puts a luna moth on its cover. Both choices show how well loved the insect is.
Q 05The luna moth was honoured across the United States in June 1987 by appearing on what?
A postage stamp
A postage stamp carried the luna moth in 1987, and the Postal Service chose it again in 2025 for a stamp made for odd-shaped envelopes.
Q 06Luna moths are strongly drawn to ultraviolet wavelengths; what urban problem is feared to disrupt their mating?
Light pollution
Light pollution from mercury vapor streetlamps is the chief worry, since the glow may keep luna moths from mating. Researchers fear it could thin their numbers in towns and cities.
Q 07What warning sound do luna moth caterpillars make with their mandibles when a predator attacks?
Clicking
Clicking is thought to warn an attacker that worse is to come, and the sound reaches up into ultrasound. People can hear the lower part of it.
Q 08Male luna moths can track a female's scent from several miles away using which large, feathery body parts?
Antennae
Antennae on a male are much longer and wider than a female's. He follows the scent upwind until he reaches her.
Q 09What markings, one on each of the luna moth's four wings, are thought to confuse would-be predators?
Eyespots
Eyespots on the luna moth are oval on the forewings and round on the hindwings. Each can carry arcs of black, blue, red or green.
Q 10What airborne chemical signals do female luna moths release at night to summon males from far away?
Pheromones
Pheromones from a luna moth female drew in only her own species in field tests with a synthetic copy. She perches on a food tree and waits to be found.
Q 11What colour is the hairy body of the luna moth, in contrast to its lime-green wings?
White
White hairs cover the luna moth's body, and a thick, deep-coloured band runs along the front edge of each forewing.
Q 12Luna moths live across the eastern United States; in which southern state can adults be found in every month?
Florida
Florida is warm enough for luna moths to fly all year, in as many as three generations. From Michigan northward there is only one generation a year.
Q 13Researchers found the ground beneath a roost of which birds littered with the wings of luna moths?
Owls
Owls prey on luna moths at night and leave the wings scattered under their roost. Every life stage of the moth is food for something.
Q 21Which fruit tree of the eastern United States, bearing sweet orange berries, also feeds luna moth caterpillars?
Persimmon
Persimmon leaves are on the luna moth menu along with hickory and sumac. Caterpillars from one region may refuse a tree that another region's caterpillars thrive on.
Q 22The comet moth, a long-tailed cousin of the luna moth, lives wild only in the rainforests of which island?
Madagascar
Madagascar is the comet moth's only home, and the male's tails can trail 15 centimetres behind him. It ranks among the largest moths of its family anywhere.
Q 23The luna moth is named for the Roman goddess Luna; who was her counterpart in Greek mythology?
Selene
Q 14Which naturalist gave the luna moth its lasting species name in 1758, replacing an older Latin label?
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus renamed the moth luna, dropping a Latin name from 1700 that described its long tails. It was the first of its family from North America to enter the scientific literature.
Q 15The luna moth belongs to a family of some of the world's largest moths, commonly known as the giant what moths?
Silk
Silk gives the giant silk moths their name, though the luna moth's own cocoon is thin and single-layered. Its relatives include some of the largest insects alive.
Q 16In which life stage do luna moths wait out the winter, a dormancy that can last about nine months?
Pupa
Pupa is the stage that sits out the cold, tucked inside a cocoon. Short days felt by the caterpillar are what trigger the long sleep.
Q 17After sounding a warning, what do luna moth caterpillars do to make an attacker back off?
Vomit
Vomit from the caterpillar's gut is nasty enough to deter several kinds of predator. The warning noise is thought to announce that it is coming.
Q 18Which Asian member of the luna moth's family has forewing tips that resemble a snake's head?
Atlas
Atlas moth wings can span 25 centimetres or more, over double a typical luna moth. Its Cantonese name means snake's head moth.
Q 19Which nut tree, whose leaves carry the insect-deterring chemical juglone, do luna moth caterpillars readily feed on?
Walnut
Walnut leaves are laced with a toxin most insects avoid, yet luna moth caterpillars have gut chemistry that neutralises it. They make even more of the antidote on such a diet.
Q 20Which tree with star-shaped leaves and spiked fruits is a favourite food plant of southern luna moth caterpillars?
Sweetgum
Sweetgum works so well for southern luna moths that breeders use it to rear them in captivity. Northern caterpillars often cannot digest it.
Selene was the Greek goddess of the Moon, as Luna was in Rome. Luna also gave English the words lunar and lunatic, from an old belief that the Moon could unsettle the mind.
Q 24Luna moth mating usually takes place in the first couple of hours after what time, once females have called in males?
Midnight
Midnight marks the start of luna moth courtship, and a pair may stay coupled for several hours. The female begins laying her eggs the following evening.
Q 25When threatened, a luna moth caterpillar rears up its front end in a pose named after which mythical creature?
Sphinx
Sphinx is the name for the pose, which may make the animal look less like a caterpillar to a hunter. Its leaf-green colour is its first line of defence.
Q 26Luna moths belong to the insect order Lepidoptera, a name built from the Greek words for wing and what else?
Scale
Scale is the other half of Lepidoptera, because tiny overlapping scales cover the wings like shingles. They are the powder that rubs off on your fingers.
Q 27The luna moth's range across the United States stops at the eastern edge of which vast region?
Great Plains
Great Plains country marks the western limit, and east of it the luna moth lives in every state from Maine southward. It is also found across southern Canada.
Q 28Which tan cousin of the luna moth is named after the one-eyed Cyclops of Greek myth?
Polyphemus
Polyphemus moth caterpillars look so like a luna moth's that the two are easily confused. The adult is tan, with a wingspan of about six inches.
Q 29Just before spinning its cocoon, a bright green luna moth caterpillar may turn which colour?
Reddish-brown
Reddish-brown marks a caterpillar ready to transform, and it also flushes out its gut first in what is known as a gut dump.
Q 30What is the name of the insect body fluid a newly emerged luna moth pumps into its crumpled wings?
Hemolymph
Hemolymph, the insect version of blood, is pumped from the swollen abdomen into the wings. The moth must then wait two to three hours for them to dry and harden.