The Cecropia, Promethea, Polyphemus and the Luna are members of the Giant Silk Moth family or Saturnids, and some are giants indeed, measuring in the 4” to 6”. Saturnids are distantly related to the moth that is used in silk production, and some Asian and South American Saturnids are semi-domesticated and the silk spun by their larvae is harvested.
Sphinx moths are also known as hawk moths because they are strong and fast fliers. They sometimes hover over flowers when sipping nectar; many fly in the late afternoon and are mistaken for small hummingbirds, and some night-flowering plants are pollinated by sphinx moths. The hornworms (as in the notorious Tomato hornworm) are Sphinx caterpillars.
Larvae of the Eastern Tent caterpillar emerge by the hundreds from egg cases that encircle the twigs of their food trees—members of the Rose family like apple, cherry and hawthorn. They spin communal, webby enclosures in the forks of branches in late spring and summer. The unspectacular brown moths they metamorphose into produce more egg mass in late summer. The adults do not feed.
Milkweeds and goldenrods are famous for being hosts to a tremendous variety of insects and other arthropods that come to eat or be eaten. Both adult and immature insects that eat milkweed at some part of their life cycle are poisonous to their predators because of the toxic cardiac glycosides contained in milkweed sap.