guess who was looking through my window

[thedirtyknapkin]

this guy:



a luna moth, actias luna, i've never actually seen one before, but this guy just started flapping against my window.

it was about 10cm from head to tail. at first i thought it was a bat flying into my window, but when it landed i was even more surprised to see what it actually was

i just got back inside from taking the picture, so as of right now it's still there,

 

[Manda Burns]

Cool and scary. lol

 

[peta62]

Wow, may I ask where is it, somewhere in tropics ?

 

[Dataflow]

Wow, may I ask where is it, somewhere in tropics ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actias_luna

 

[peta62]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actias_luna

Thank you very much, but I still have hard time to believe 10cm ( 4 inches ) moth with such bright green colour living in "normal" climate.

 

[Dataflow]

you should see how big the moths are here.
not as good looking but still big

 

[peta62]

you should see how big the moths are here.
not as good looking but still big

Yes, Australia is full of VERY strange creatures that live nowhere else ;-) I would love to see it once, I still hope I will one day

 

[Jessicayla]

I love moths, they are so beautiful!

 

[thedirtyknapkin]

Wow, may I ask where is it, somewhere in tropics ?

this specific one was in wisconsin, which isn't exactly known for large colorful insects, so i was surprised to see this thing flying strait at me.

the local museum has a butterfly exhibit, with hundreds of exotic butterflies flying around, but this thing was bigger than most of those even, and, before this, i had never seen a lepidoptera like this in the wild.

 

[peta62]

this specific one was in wisconsin, which isn't exactly known for large colorful insects, so i was surprised to see this thing flying strait at me.

the local museum has a butterfly exhibit, with hundreds of exotic butterflies flying around, but this thing was bigger than most of those even, and, before this, i had never seen a lepidoptera like this in the wild.

I think there must be something strange with this one. Animals usually do have colours to hide in the nature, that's why bright colours are common in tropics and Wisconsin is more connected with frozen tundra than tropics. I guess it must have fled from somewhere.
Thank you for information ( and a beautiful picture too of course ).