Silk Moth

[tiggymalvern]

The other evening, we had a larger than usual visitor to our windows after dark.


The SO conveniently provided a hand inside the window for scale. It would look more impressive if his hands were smaller!


It's a polyphemus moth, a member of the giant silk moth family. They're supposed to be common, but this is the first one I've seen in 5 years here. I suppose on the same grounds that some species of owls are common, but you don't set eyes on too many of those either, unless you make a habit of prowling the woods after dark.

Sadly, it never did unfold its wings completely, so we didn't get to see the huge eye spots on the lower wings. Anyway, I thought it was fabulous, and I thought I'd share :-)

Comments

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Wow, look at its beautiful antennae! And so fuzzy! Glad that you had such a pretty visitor. :)

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

The antennae are stunning - apparently they're bigger on the male, so I'm assuming this is probably a male. If this is the female, I'd definitely like to see the hairier one!