“A certain species of moths lives exclusively on sloths; spending their entire adult’s life in the animal’s fur.”

National Geographic Kids, 5,000 Awesome Facts, Fact 13 on sloths

Coprophagous moths live only on sloths; exclusively. They depend solely on the sloth and the sloth’s algae rich fur.

Coprophagous are organisms that “is one that eats the feces/excrement of another animal. (amentsoc.org)

The moths and sloths have a relationship in that when the sloth goes down the tree once a week for it’s bathroom break, the moth will ride on the back of the sloth to the bottom of the tree. There, the female moth will lay their eggs in the fresh sloth dung. The eggs are tiny and look like small white orbs that are either laid in one spot or in a line. Hundreds of eggs are usually laid and once the moth has reached maturity, they return back up the tree to mate with their fellow moths. The secretion of the sloth’s skin and the algae, plus absence of avian predators help maintain the moth’s life.

So while a moth can only survive on a sloth, what exactly does a sloth want from a moth?

After a lot of research it was found that the algae on sloth’s fur contributes greatly as a nutritional supplement to the sloth, and the more the moths; the more the algae. “The scientists suggest that sloth’s cultivate the algae in their fur by aiding the moth’s colonization.” (Royalsociety.org)

Three fingered sloths tend to carry more moths than the two fingered sloths.