Luna again

My son and hubby found this one just as he was unfolding from his sleep. I was not home at the time to take photos until later or I could have caught the whole thing on film, of all the times to be gone.....LOL.... I have more I was able to take today when I got home from work, I put him/her in a jar so it would be safe until it could dry out. I hope you enjoy them. I tried to photograph in as many settings as I could before I set him/her free.
Give me a few minutes I have many photos to post..

Dee

Luna and Tropical something Hibiscus

Luna and Butterfly Ginger..........

Luna and the "Dutchman"

Luna and Blue Sky vine.....

This is just the most beautful Moth.........I sure wish I could have caught him Hatching.............Arrrrrrrggggggg

How about this one...........This is where I let him go after dark....It is on my Butterfly Ginger...

I am on the hunt for some more..........if theres one there's gotta be more....
And that's all for now....
dee

All I can say is WOW!! That is some beautiful moth and the pics ain't bad either! You should enter the pipevine one in a photo contest.

Peggy

Ahh... the beauty of nature and a good photographer too! Wonderful! :-)

Dee those are so awesome. Still hoping to find another one here

Great pictures.

Beautiful!

Wow, that is gorgeous! Great pictures. Will definitely have to show my daughter your pictures in the morning.

Dee, he's beautiful! Great pictures!

Breathtaking!!! Sure wish we had those beauties way down here in the south tip of Texas.

~ Cat

Oh my goodness!! What a lovely creature that is!!
Thank you tytytyty for sharing that!!

:oDdeb

How lovely! Please do remember the photo contest...you've got a couple of contenders there!

Now, I've heard that the female Luna stays in the same place she hatches and does not fly around searching for a mate....the male is more active and is 'on the hunt' so to speak. Since the one you have seems so docile, maybe it could be a female? Just speculating...Maybe an expert could weigh in and fill us in.

Neither sex has mouth parts capable of eating, so they live only long enough to breed.....sad that something so lovely only lives a day or two.

That one must think it was born in heaven, plenty of different nectars there...what a life!

Amazing experience for you too Dee :o), excellent photos!

In awe
;oDeb

This message was edited Sep 29, 2006 10:52 AM

Absolutely stunning! The pictures are amazing as well! Thank you for sharing.
Sharon

Oh how beautiful!!! So delicate, and great photography too :) I've never seen anything like that, in fact, before this thread I didn't know what a Luna moth was (hides). I guess I'm going to have to become more nocturnal on the weekends...LOL!

Thanks Dee!

~Sunny

Melody, how sad they only live such a short time, they are so beautiful.

Oh boy,
I just had to go look for what the host plant is for the Luna Larvae. Here is one I found that has good basic (not as good as Dee's, :o)), pictures of the different stages and what they feed on.

http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/johnson/hort/Butterfly/LunaMoth.htm

Dee-
Gorgeous!, and lucky you to see one in person. We've gotten several different large moths, but I've never seen the Luna....

I believe you have a little girl there. The males antennae are much wider/larger and more pronounced, than the females.

-T

ps-
just looked at that site, and I guess you'd have figured out she was a girl from that site, but I didn't know that yet, lol...

Yep Dee,
Be on the lookout for another Luna with fluffier antennae, and see what happens. Such a breif time...sigh.


:oDebnes

Thanks for the link Guys. Now I know what to look for. I have seen more of the cocoons but didn't know what they were. I have quite a few more and I am going to gather them and see if I am lucky enough to catch one hatching out.
If I do I will take photos in steps and we can all see how they progress.

thanks again

Dee

That"s great Dee! And you have a good camera to do that with. I'm looking forward to more pics as you post them if all goes well.

I'll keep checking in until then:o)

Deb