An adult that cannot eat
Actias selene, the Indian luna moth, does not eat as an adult. Its mouthparts are vestigial, fused shut by evolution. It emerges from its cocoon with one task: locate a mate before its larval fat reserves run out, a window that closes in roughly four to seven days. Every pale green wing, every long trailing tail, every eyespot on its 90 to 120 mm wingspan exists in service of that single compressed urgency.
