I’ve only managed to see this species twice in my life. Once when I was young and then again in the summer of 2017 when I moved to Colorado. I was honestly quite surprised because I had no clue this species ranged into Colorado at all but as it turns out, it does.

The genus Automeris is quite speciose having around 145 species. Here in the U.S we have only 7 species with just A. io being widespread. 5 species just barely make it in the southwest and there’s one species found in the coastal salt marshes in areas of the gulf coast.

Automeris io is a member of the family Saturniidae (Giant Silk Moths) and can be found throughout  the eastern U.S and into Colorado. This species is easily identified from the very conspicuous eye spot on the hind wings and quite frankly its unmistakable.

This species has a bit of range in terms of host food plants including maple, poplar, willow, and elm to name a few.

Currently in my Collection I have one specimen collected in Colorado

 

More information can be found online:

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/io_moth.htm

https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Automeris-io

https://bugguide.net/node/view/405