Unexpected House Guest

Bryan found an unexpected house guest in our basement on Thursday night...well, more accurately, he saw her out the window and thought she was cool, so let her in...

First clue...

Any guesses??...

It's not a bat...

Give up?

This is a Polyphemus Moth, otherwise known as a type of giant silk moth.

Bryan took this photo after catching it. He used his foot as a reference so that you could get an idea of how large it is.

I looked it up the next day and, according to the photos I found, it looks to be a female. According to Wikipedia.com, its wingspan averages about 6 inches in diameter, which is about how wide our moth was.

Here's a close up of the giant silk moth. It's slightly grainy because the photo was taken in a dark area, but you can still see the cool color pattern, including the purple on around the "eyes" and stripes on the hindwings.

We definitely don't see insects this large very often, so it was neat that Bryan found this one. There's more info HERE if you're interested.