The Shadows on My Wall Don't Sleep

Penny was pouncing the heck out of the screen (OMFG cat, STOP THAT!) so I went to tell her to knock it off and possibly close the door.

Well it turns out there was more than a chipmunk or a bird to pounce at today....



Only he was practically nose to nose with her alternating sniffing and backing away from her pounces.

I shut the door and got my camera. Apparently the lack of cat and house smells killed the fun because that's the only shot I managed to get of him before he wandered out of range.

There's a huge moth outside, it was beating itself against the window so hard I thought it had to be the last of the June beetles, of maybe a squirrel in the attic digging around.

I estimate it to have a 6" wingspan. Cream and brown, coppery eyes, wide antennae (maybe a 1/4"). Fat fuzzy body about the size of my little finger, and furry legs. It's sort of pretty.

You all know that if it were inside the window I'd be having a freak-out and be whimpering locked in the bathroom or something. Bugs and I don't get along, and the thought of that monster near my head? I'd be waking hafoc with my flailing about I'm sure.

But it's safely outside, so I can light it up with the LED flashlight and admire it.

And Shadow can make "let me kill it" sounds.

[Edit: Downgraded to 4.5-5", photographed.]



Photo taken from inside a lighted room holding a white LED flashlight in my left hand aimed off center to avoid glare as much as possible and operating a somewhat unfamiliar digicam with my right. If anyone can identify the beast from the underside of the wing I'll be very impressed. The best I've managed is thinking it might be a female Imperial Moth.

[Edit again: Well it started beating itself on the window again and I think I saw fairly large eye spots on the rear wings. Since sites generally don't have pictures of the underside of wings this is a bit difficult to identify. But it could be a Polyphemus moth, it's so hard to tell in the middle of the night when it's trying to beat its way through a window into a lighted room. I can say that it's big, basically cream and brown on the underside and a bit rusty, very fuzzy, with big wide wings shaped in typical butterfly style with no swallow tail or scalloping. Not much to go on.]

[Edit again, again: hafoc found a better moth identification site, Mothra was definitely a Polyphemus.]