Common Name: Green-banded Urania Moth / South American Day Moth
Scientific Name: Urania leilus
Locality: Amazon Basin, South America
Glass Window: 99% UV-blocking conservation glass
Frame Size: 6″ × 6″ × 1.25″

Urania leilus refuses to fit in the same mold as their less flamboyant moth relatives. When scientists first encountered this moth in 1758, they took one look at those iridescent wings and the swallowtail silhouette and just... filed it under butterflies and called it a day. Can you blame them? It flies during the day. It migrates in massive, shimmering swarms. It has structural color so precise that each scale bends light like a tiny prism. It drinks minerals from muddy riverbanks in a behavior so associated with butterflies that entomologists had to do a double-take when they saw a moth doing it.

The electric flash of green and blue color isn't just showing off, it's a warning to hungry predators . As a caterpillar, U. leilus feeds almost exclusively on toxic Omphalea plants, stockpiling poison until it earns the right to wear those colors. By the time it takes to the air, it is essentially a flying "do not eat me" sign. A beautiful, iridescent, two-million-years-in-the-making sign.

If you like standing out, defying expectations, and the occasional identity crisis, you might just find a kindred spirit in U. leilus. Join us to preserve this beautiful weirdo and bask in everything that makes it difficult (but not impossible) to categorize.