Luna Moth

 We had a heck of a rain storm yesterday, even with threats of hail and tornadoes. When there was a break in the storm I took our dog Ziva out for a walk. Every thing was sopping wet. We walked by the clump of yucca that had been so pretty a month ago and I thought 'that's a strange leaf'. So I looked closer and say it wasn't a leaf but a Luna moth. And it wasn't even wet. I snapped a couple of shots of it with my cell phone. On returning to the house I got my Cannon camera and went back to see if it was still there. It was. So I took a bunch of photos. Here are some of them. This was the first Luna moth I had ever seen. It was large, bout 4 inches across and just as long. The antenna looked like little feathers attached to it's head. In the one picture you can see the white body and the dark legs are clinging to the long yucca leaf. I read about Luna moths and discovered that the caterpillar like to eat hickory tree leaves as well as some other leaves. Hummm Maybe that is why I found him just about under one of the large hickory trees on our property. The Luna moth is so pretty it has been used on a postage stamp and in a sleep aide commercial.

these are photos of the hickory tree leaves the Luna moth like to eat and some hickory nuts that are still green. And the squirrels like to eat those.