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Photo: Cercropia Moth

By Howard B. Owens

Sam Ferris of Judge Road in South Alabama called me this morning and said there were a pair of large butterflies hanging out in his yard and he thought it might make an interesting picture.

A butterfly with a six-inch wing span? Sounds pretty interesting and I had a little time this morning, so I drove out there.

After getting a picture, I drove out to the Interpretive Center at Genesee County Park to cover an event there. When talking with volunteers there, I mentioned the large butterfly and pulled the picture up on my camera.

A volunteer said, "That's not a butterfly. That's a moth."

It turns out it's a Cecropia Moth (Hyalophora Cecropia). I learned that the moth has no digestive system. Tonight, it will probably fly off, find a mate and then die. Typically, once they molt, they live about three days.

Jodi Coburn

We had a male in our yard yesterday. We did a little of our own research and found a great site with the whole life cycle. We had our moth around the yard for the day until he flew away sometime last night. He was almost 6 inches across. We took a few good pics.

Here is the link....

http://www.wormspit.com/cecropia.htm

Jun 4, 2011, 10:47pm Permalink

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