It's not a butterfly — it's a moth! Learn how to identify the promethea silk moth, a beautifully patterned backyard visitor.

Atlas moth caterpillars also produce silk similar to the product created by domesticated silkworms. It is secreted as strong, brown, broken strands called fagara, and is used to build a cocoon when ...

The caterpillar, along with most others in the Saturniidae family, spins a silk cocoon. This is where it then spends its time as a pupa, the stage of development before the moth becomes an adult.

Characteristic cocoon with final instar larva and pupa of the alpine rose leaf-miner moth on Rhododendron ferrugineum in Ardez, Graubünden, Switzerland. Alpine rose leaf-miner moth adults resting ...