Tuesday, May 5, 2009

A nighttime visitor

The other night, a strangled cry from my husband caused me to look up from the book I was reading. He was standing on our front porch, with a surprised look on his face. "Come here," he said, "and bring the camera."

Assuming he had been surprised by a large spider, and fearing that said spider might try to perpetrate a sneak attack if I went through the front door, I approached the front porch by way of the back door.

As you can see from the picture below, it was not an arachnid that had startled my hubby. Drying its newly-hatched wings on our front porch was a luna moth. You can't tell from the picture, but the wingspan is around four inches.


Isn't he beautiful? I say "he" because a bit of internet research informed me that the male luna moth has bushier antennae.

3 comments:

Lori said...

Oh, how GORGEOUS! Haven't seen one of these in years. You lucky thing!

M. Bail said...

I think I'd scream if I saw that too...it's beautiful but enormous. I've never seen one before, but I'm going to assume that's because they don't live this far north?

Amie said...

This was my first experience with a luna moth, but I have seen cecropias (which, believe it or not, are a little bigger than a luna--but not as exotic-looking).