A friend emailed this to me. Colors are cool but the antennae are what really catch my eye. I have never seen anything like them before. I'd love to know the actual size of the moth.
Something may have gotten lost in translation: The insect in the NG gallery has characteristics (antennae, mandibles, hairless thorax) of a beetle, not a moth.
If this is indeed a species common to the Chicago area, the antennae and body could be 2 inches in length.
The antennae are referred to as pectinate (comb-like).
Thank you for pointing out what look like mandibles. That pretty much kills the "moth" title.
I looked through my Kaufman Insects guide and Peterson Beetles book but did not find a beetle that resembled it. I found some beetles with pectinate antennae but the "teeth" were farther apart.
Perhaps Mothra had pincer mandibles, so moths are not ruled out entirely.
The photo you linked to bothered me in other ways. It does not look like a "nature picture". The beetle is on a surface of the same iridescent palette of colors, like lighted by multiple LED colored lights. Well, that is the risk NG takes when they accept photos from the general public, but there have been many remarkable images in the galleries, so it is worth it to look past the occasionally enhanced photo.
I also did a search for the moth-beetle, but it is not similar to any buprestid or wood-borers that I came across. Perhaps more info will come out if NG publishes a correction, as they do in the print magazine on occasion.
