My neighbour's daughter gave me this last night (she's the same one who gave me this rain spider). At this stage I wasn't sure if it was a moth or a butterfly. The diameter of the base of the jar is 10cm.
18:55
I tipped it out of the jar into a pot plant on the verandah, hoping it would climb onto the plant. Instead it climbed out the pot and up the wall, and as soon as it stopped moving, the wings started growing.
18:56
The following should be vertical/portait - I've not rotated it so you can see more detail.
19:04
Almost complete (should be vertical/portrait)
20:23
A close-up of the pattern on the thorax.
20:56
The final shot before I went to bed (should be vertical/portrait). At this stage the body length was about 6cm.
21:12
This was one of the most rewarding series I've ever done. At midnight, it was still in the same position, but at 2am it was gone - hopefully through flying away and not into the belly of one of my cats.
There are more on Fotki
, and I'll be adding to them over the weekend. I took well over 50 shots.I should add, all shots were at 1/125s @ F22. It was pretty dark and rather difficult to find the focus point even with a torch to light up the moth.
)
