A 25-year-old lady was in awe when she discovered a face and the name "Anna" on the back of a moth.
When Reagan Lewallen, who was house-sitting, let her friend's dog out into the yard last Sunday and saw the enormous five-inch imperial moth sunning itself, she did a double-take.
Imperial moth with an unusual writing
Its tan back had yellow patterns that precisely spelled the name "Anna" below a spooky-looking visage.
Reagan said she felt chills when she saw the face and name on the bug's back and grabbed her phone to snap a photo, as per Good News Network, where the image was posted.
She forwarded it to her mother, who claimed to see a young child with pigtails.
Reagan is certain that the eerie sight is a message from Anna, a spirit letting everyone know that she is safe in the afterlife.
Following social media posting of the image, the post received thousands of shares and comments.
Many imperial moths (Eacles imperialis) have a face-like appearance due to their natural design, but what stands out more are the perfectly sized letters ANNA.
According to Reagan, a resident of Senoia, Georgia, "I'm the sort of person that will stop and take a photo if I see a great insect, a cool tree, or the sky looks pretty."
I had previously observed this species of moth, but never one with a face and a name.
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What is an imperial moth?
Eacles imperialis, a huge, mostly yellow moth with spots, lines, and splotches of light to dark brown, is known as the imperial moth, as per NC State Extension Publications.
They belong to the royal moths subgroup of the enormous silkworm family.
Imperial moths emerge from the ground in the late spring, mate, and lay hundreds of eggs on a variety of trees. The eggs are almost 1/8-inch wide flattened spheres.
Orange caterpillars with prominent black spines that are approximately half an inch long emerge from the eggs.
Caterpillars gradually grow into three to five-inch long, chubby, green, brown, or practically black worms
Brown caterpillars can have pronounced orange markings.
Mature green caterpillars have yellow patches and knobs on each side of their bodies (the spiracles through which they breathe).
The knobs on the other color versions are dark. Long, fine hair is also found covering the mature caterpillars.
Fully mature caterpillars scurry to the ground and bury themselves. In the soil, they molt and enter the pupal stage. The pupae are cylindrical, reddish brown, and taper slightly at the back.
The tip end has a tiny, forked structure. The pupae utilize that structure to aid in digging up to the soil's surface.
The second generation of moths is commonly believed to emerge from the pupal stage later in the summer.
These ladies reproduce and produce eggs that will later hatch into caterpillars. They burrow into the ground after they are fully developed to pupate and spend the winter there.
The next spring, moths emerge from the larvae that overwintered. However, it is unclear if North Carolina has two generations annually or just one.
Although the caterpillars of imperial moths may consume a wide variety of plants, they seem to favor pine, oak, maple, sassafras, and sweetgum trees.
Different less frequent hosts include a variety of other plants, including cedar, elm, persimmon, hickory, beech, honeylocust, and cypress.
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