Lymantria

The Lymantria, also known as the Desert Moth, is one of the Creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Behavior
Passive. Upon combat with a player or dino it will deploy a green mist of spores, that slows players and dinos by 90% and drains stamina. While its attacker is distracted, it will flee.

Appearance
It seems to resemble a giant moth, with bright colored wings.

General
Will fly away when attacked.

Strategy
Avoid green mist/spores.

Weaponry
Ranged weapons are recommended in order to avoid the spores.

Dangers
When you hit the Lymantria, it deploys a cloud of spores which will deplete stamina as well as slowing dinos and players by 90%. watch out for wild dinosaurs while fighting, if you get hit by the spores any medium sized carnivore will make short work of you.

Weakness
Use a bola to stop it from flying away.

KO Strategy
Use a Bola so it can't fly away, then knock it out. While it doesn't have very high torpor, it also has rather low health, so using a Boomerang is discouraged unless it's a higher level. Shoot its wing and abdomen with a standard Bow and Tranq Arrows; be quick or it will either die or fly away.

Roles

 * Beginner Flying Mount: It can't fly very fast and its attack is rather weak, so It is mostly used for beginning players who just want a flying mount to get past particularly difficult terrain. Lymantria will kibble tame before their topor drains completely and a tent will last longer than the taming process.  Lymantria can be quickly captured in a tent, tranquilized, and forgotten about with kibble in their inventory.  Depending on the server event, this can generate an herbivorous flying mount in 20 minutes or less with spike walls being a formality.  The lymantria does not require a dinosaur gate and will comfortably fit through a double doorframe.
 * Taming Mount: Unlike other flyers, the Lymantria cannot pick up creatures. However, its slowing ability does not aggro neutral creatures such as Morellatops or Paraceratherium. This allows the rider to slow down a target while leaving other tribe members to tame the slow-moving creature.
 * Bomber Squadron Mount: Due to Moth's being able to drop Spores a long distance, they could be used to drop onto enemies to slow them and allow time for others to attack, like a Pteradon Fighter Squadron. (Upgrade Health and Stamina)
 * Transport: The Moth Has more weight than the Making it a better mount for Transport.
 * Travel: Isn't very slow and isn't very Fast can be a good choice for travelling.
 * Scout: Lymantria use about 0.75 stamina/second whilst hovering, close to 1.1 stamina/second while flying, and drain a massive 6.8 stamina/second while sprinting.  Their hovering mode does not produce a sound, similar to the pelagornis mid-air stall.  Their wing sound is muted when flying( compared to an argentavis or pteranodon), and few players are trained to listen for it  They also have a very tight turning radius while ridden and can easily navigate in tight spaces.  Their stamina drain and slowing attack allows the player to cheese it when necessary, though at a heavy stamina cost to their own tame.
 * Egg-stealer: Lymantria are not recommended as wyvern egg stealers, due to their flying speed being slower than a tapejara and wyvern attack AoE being large.  That said, Lymantria will fit through a double doorframe and someone will be crazy enough to fry a few Lymantria trying.  A squadron of Lymantria may successfully distract the aggravated wyverns and allow a faster mount to escape.  For a cheap wyvern egg stealer, seek out a griffin because their bombarding attack generates excess inertia, allowing the pilot to quickly gain ludicrous speed( far outpacing a wyvern) and height through swooping maneuvers.
 * In-doors “Lift Truck”: Due to Lymantria’s ability to fit through double doors land and it’s very good maneuverability without being too fast (unlike the Pteranodon), this giant moth can find a niche role as an in-doors mule. With a very upgraded weight stat, this creature can help in some tiresome tasks such as moving huge loads of metal from an Industrial Forge to a Fabricator or a smithy. This role is particularly great in unofficial servers with a modifier on Weight upgrade effectiveness.

Notes/Trivia

 * Lymantria along with the are one of the few creatures incapable of directly dealing damage.
 * during Missions will use a bite attack along with their spores.
 * On February 15, 2016, a fan-made dossier of a giant lepidoptera was uploaded onto the fan art section of the Ark forums.
 * It is the only rideable flying herbivore in the game.
 * Prior to 316.18, Lymantria couldn't be bred and would lay unfertilized eggs.
 * In the real world all moths and butterflies start out as larvae or caterpillars before becoming adults. The Lymantria in Ark start out in their moth stage and not as larva when they hatch.
 * Despite what is mentioned in the dossier, Moths do not produce Silk passively nor do their spores affect crops.
 * In the real world there have been huge moths recorded in fossil records however none of those moths reached the size as the Lymantria found in Ark.