Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Polyphemus

The measured wingspan of this beautiful polyphemus moth is just over 6 inches. It's not the biggest of our native moths but danged close. The caterpillars live on most of our hardwood trees and can eat 80,000 times their birth weight before metamorphosis. They rarely cause harm to their host trees. This one has expired and is a bit faded but still magnificent.

2 comments:

  1. I am intrigued and jealous. What a wonderful find.

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  2. We are keeping this specimen and placing it under glass. She's too beautiful to let go back to the elements.

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