Native populations exist in all U.S. states and Canadian provinces except Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, and Newfoundland. Most adult moths fly from late May to July. In Texas and Florida adults fly in every month except January. The diapause will be broken by increasing hours of daylight and warmer temperatures. Hence springtime weather conditions will determine whether there are one, two, or three broods in a given year.
Males tend to emerge two to three days before females.
The adults tend to eclose or emerge from their cocoons in the early afternoon. Photo by Dan MacKinnon with inserts from Kurt Himmelbauer. The adult secretes a chemical called cocoonase to break down or soften the sericin that binds the silk strands of the cocoon. Hornlike projections at the base of the forewing are then used to tear at the silk while strong legs continuously heave the moth forward until it can escape from its valveless cocoon. This event sometimes creates a racket in an indoor emergence cage, but the process usually only lasts a few minutes.