luna moth
1
7.9
- noun
- /ˈluːnə mɔθ/
- US
:
polilla luna
- (His mother had jumped back at a Luna moth that had crashed into the screen, though there was no way Eddie, in his darkness, could know this).
Examples
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I was thrilled to spot a large luna moth resting on the porch during a warm summer evening.
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The pale green luna moth is one of the largest and most beautiful insects found in North America.
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I found a luna moth at our front porch light.
Academic text (2009) -
As night fell, the delicate luna moth emerged, its long-tailed hind wings fluttering in the moonlight.
Synonyms
A large pale green North American moth with long tail-like hind wings and yellow crescent marks
Surface Forms
Morphology
luna + moth
The compound is compositional: 'luna' (moon) + 'moth' yields the sense of a moth associated with the moon or moon-like markings, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it refers to a moth characterized by moon-shaped features. Naming animals by salient visual features is cross-linguistically common, and the dictionary definition (pale-green with a crescent mark) directly matches this inference.
Etymology
Luna moth may get its name from the Latin word luna meaning 'moon' because its pale green wings and small yellow crescent marks look like tiny moons, and the insect is mostly active at 'night'.