[2] As defense mechanisms, larvae emit clicks as a warning and can also regurgitate intestinal contents, confirmed as having a deterrent effect on a variety of predators.

[6][7] Eggs, attached in small groups to undersides of leaves, are mottled white and brown, slightly oval, and roughly 1.5 millimeters in diameter.

[2] Described and named Phalena plumata caudata by James Petiver in 1700, this was the first North American saturniid to be reported in the insect literature.

[10] The Luna moth is found in North America, from east of the Great Plains in the United States – Florida to Maine, and from Saskatchewan eastward through central Quebec to Nova Scotia in Canada.

[2] Females lay 200–400 eggs, singly or in small groups, on the underside of leaves of the tree species preferred by the larvae.

At the end of each instar, a small amount of silk is placed on the major vein of a leaf and the larva undergoes apolysis, then ecdysis (molting), leaving the old exoskeleton behind.

Newly hatched, this caterpillar constantly munches on the leaves of walnut, hickory, sweetgum, and paper birch trees.

When females emerge from cocoons, they fly to preferred tree species, emit pheromones, and wait there for males to find them.

Shortly before pupation, the final, fifth-instar caterpillar will engage in a "gut dump" where any excess water and intestinal contents are expelled.

When the adult Luna moths emerge from their pupae, their abdomens are swollen and their wings are small, soft and wet.

[2] Giant silk moths have in common a mating process wherein the females, at night, release volatile sex pheromones, which the males, flying, detect via their large antennae.

Luna moth females mate with the first males to find them, a process that typically starts after midnight and takes several hours.

The authors mentioned that no other moth species were attracted to either the unmated females or the synthesized products, confirming that the pheromone is species-specific, at least for the sites and dates where it was tested.

[16] Some species of giant silk moth larvae are known to make clicking noises when attacked by rubbing their serrated mandibles together.

Clicks are thought to be a form of aposematic warning signaling, made prior to predator-deterring regurgitation of intestinal contents.

[3] Imagos (winged adults) of this and related night-flying Actias species, collectively referred to as "moon moths", have long hindwing tails.

A "false target" hypothesis holds that the tails evolved to reduce predation risk by bats which use echolocation to locate prey.

[4] The moths use the spinning hindwing tails to fool bats into attacking nonessential appendages, with success occurring over 55% of the time.

[6] Researchers reported that when Luna moth larvae were placed outside for about a week and then collected and returned to the laboratory, four parasitic species emerged, the most common being C. concinnata.

[7] Luna moth larvae have displayed defenses against predators in late instars by developing spines once they reach about 3 cm in length.

Unlike other species such as Automeris io, which have chemical defenses much earlier in the larval stage, the Luna moth larvae are left largely defenseless until it reaches this length.

Automeris io has a larval stage at least twice as long on average as Actias luna, leaving it vulnerable to parasitism.