The Venezuelan poodle moth is an as-yet unidentified species of

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

photographed in 2009 by

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the east. ...

i zoologist Dr. Arthur Anker in the

Gran Sabana La Gran Sabana (, en, The Great Savanna) is a region in southeastern Venezuela, part of the Guianan savanna ecoregion. The savanna spreads into the regions of the Guiana Highlands and south-east into Bolívar State, extending further to the bo ...

region of

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. Anker initially captioned his photo as "Poodle moth, Venezuela", naming it after its resemblance to a

poodle , nickname = , stock = , country = Germany or France (see history) , height = , maleheight = , femaleheight = , weight = , maleweight = , femaleweight = , coat ...

Classification

Anker hypothesized it could be a member of the genus '' Artace'', namely the species '' Artace cribraria''. Dr. John E. Rawlins from the

Carnegie Museum of Natural History The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) is a natural history museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896. Housing some 22 millio ...

concurred with the ''Artace'' classification: The moth is often confused online with images of the domestic silk moth (''Bombyx mori''), which is native to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Cryptozoologist Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that searches for and studies unknown, legendary, or extinct animals whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, particularly those popular in folklore, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness M ...

Karl Shuker Karl Shuker (born 9 December 1959) is a British zoologist, cryptozoologist and author. He lives in the Midlands, England, where he works as a zoological consultant and writer. A columnist in ''Fortean Times'' and contributor to various magazine ...

noted the Venezuelan poodle moth has a superficial resemblance to the muslin moth (''Diaphora mendica''), a

tiger moth The de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s British biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and other operators as a primary trainer aircraft. ...

from

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

. Measurements derived from Dr. Anker's photographs show the moth to be about 1 in (2.5 cm) in length. The unusual appearance and dearth of actual information on the moth has led to it being compared to famous animal hoaxes.

Habitat

The photographs were taken in the

Canaima National Park Canaima National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Canaima) is a park in south-eastern Venezuela that roughly occupies the same area as the Gran Sabana region. It is located in Bolívar State, reaching the borders with Brazil and Guyana. History Ca ...

. The region includes diverse

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

types, including moist forest and high rock plateaus known as

tepui A tepui , or tepuy (), is a table-top mountain or mesa found in South America, especially in Venezuela and western Guyana. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the Pemon, the indigenous people who inhabit the Gran S ...

Material of its fur and potential predators

Poodle moths exhibit a distinctive characteristic that piques interest: the fluffy exterior covering their bodies, composed of chitin—an insect equivalent to cellulose found in plant cell walls. Chitin, a robust polysaccharide, serves various purposes, including structural support and, notably for poodle moths, creating sound-absorbing fluff as a defense against bat echolocation. This fluffy layer absorbs sound, muffling the return signal and making it challenging for bats to detect the moths through echolocation. The observed fuzziness of the poodle moth implies a defense mechanism against bats, positioning them as potential predators, even if the exact identity of these predators remains uncertain.

References

Lasiocampidae Internet memes Fauna of the Tepuis Moths of South America {{Moth-stub