Sunday, August 17, 2008

Goat moth

Nice to meet again! This butterfly is known as the goat moth and carpenterworm moth. (Goat is a reference to the smell of it.) I have seen a caterpillar on three separate occasions, and each time I have taken a photo. This is a long-lived butterfly, as the larvae often live for up to five years before pupating. I was thinking about putting my finger in the picture to show the scale (it was about the size of the little finger), but decided not to because the caterpillar can bite quite hard.

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