Marks look like a skull DH said.
Shellie
Look at the Head on this moth..
wow, he's beautiful!
Thank you redlines.
He was on the outside wall of the house. Great color & about 2" wide from tip to tip of wings.
Shellie
Spectacular colours! Now if I could encourage them to my garden, I'd be delighted!
The Polydamus butterfly larvae are attracted to the Aristolochia vines. I have 1 'ringens' and 2 'gibertii' vines, all large and very mature. Withing a couple of weeks they have been dessimated by the P. larvae. They have even chomped on my mini Aristolochia Fimbriata - but no use complaining as I have them in the garden for this very reason! Chomp away and bring more Polydamus butterflies to my garden greedy little larvae!
I think it is a Imperial Moth http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/Files/Live/Living39.5F.shtml
cool, I'll keep him
One of the few moths that's lucky enough to be pretty!
He is pretty.
If it's a female, she'll lay eggs for you. Adults don't feed, so if they are kept in a cage they get to fulfill their goal of putting their eggs someplace safe. I have never caught any of the Saturniid females that were not already mated. Forgive me if you knew this. Preaching to the choir is a specialty of mine.
FM
This message was edited Jul 27, 2006 6:10 PM
I know you weren't talking to me but as a member of the choir I thought I would say that your "preaching" is good, especially since we get new choir members all the time!
LOL, Paige, you are so right! That was DH posting, not me, Kenya. So he IS a new choir member! :-) He couldn't stand me having all the fun on DG, so he has finally taken the plunge and started posting too.
I'm thinking that he and I need to establish a system to posting since we both use the same ID. Maybe I can get him to sign his posts with DH or something.
too funny Kenya. I am learning from his post so we are all glad to have him
Oh yes, he should identify himself (although I already figured it out) or we're going to give you all the credit.
DoSaye,
Yes, definitely the Imperial Moth (Eacles imperialis) in the family Saturniidae, order Lepidoptera.
Could you please add this lovely picture to the BugFiles
Ken
Paige, I don't have enough book smarts to impersonate him for long. I'd be found out 'fer shure', lol. BTW, he is signing his posts with his initials, FM.
I shall resort to my initials for my posts--KM. I may go back and edit his uninitialed posts. That ought to keep things mostly straight.
KM
Ye sI can add this to the bug files. This guy has generated alot of good knowledge & fun topic. I let this gorgeous moth do its thing & I believe it has moved on to another home. I see these occasionally like once a month. I live on a lake does that make a difference in the appearance? I also have a mint green color with yellow markings that comes out once in awhile & I have yet to get its picture.