Saturday, September 28, 2013

A visitor flew in...

I was home alone, sitting in the lounge room the other night when I saw, out of the corner of my eye, this giant moth fly into my study. It was so big I thought it was a bat. With some trepidation, I set off to find it, but it seemed to have disappeared. I assumed it had left, but later, when I was in bed with all the lights out, I heard mad flapping coming from my study. 
I took a torch and finally tracked it down, trapped behind a box of magazines. I have since discovered that they're called the Hercules moth and they're the biggest moths in the world and can grow to 27 cm. This is a male. the females are bigger.
Anyway, I used bubble wrap to lift my moth out, hoping I wouldn't hurt it, and then I took it outside and set it free. Or so I thought.
 Yesterday I found it lying dead outside my bedroom. Sad. Vale giant Hercules moth.