If you’re an adult male Columbia silk moth, it’s all about pheromones. Male Hyalaphora columbia gloveri spend their precious few evenings of adult life zigzagging upwind in search of a female’s pheromone signal. If they are lucky enough to be the first male to find a female, they have fulfilled their purpose. Most adults (male and female) don’t live longer than six days and live only off the fat they accumulated as larvae. This individual was found along Hwy 395 near the Lundy Road on May 17. Hyalaphora is the most striking moth in the Mono Basin, and is as fleeting as it is beautiful.
