Moth Notes or Designs from Nature for a Patch

The moth, and all insects, for that matter, has no lungs as man possesses, but breathe through tubes called tracheae. These tracheae penetrate into the moth’s body, branching much like our bronchioles do. Air enters the tracheae by openings called spiracles found on each side of the moth’s abdomen, a pair to each segment. When the moth grows large, the tracheae cannot grow in ratio to the increasing size of the body of the insect. It is this breathing system of insects that keeps them so small, hence there has never been a moth more than a dozen inches long…there could never be a moth of truly great size.

Still, some moths manage to overcome their tracheal handicap by unfurling wings like huge parasails in a solar wind, pumping a watery, yellowish hydraulic fluid through the membranous wings as they emerge from the cocoon. Since the wings do not need to be supplied with oxygen, they dry into papery appendages adorned with muted scales, in the case of the Luna Moth, of lunar green and mauve, creamy white or russet gold.

--Henderson Scout Reservation, Oneonta, NY, featured the Luna Moth on it's camp patch in 1996.