I saw this huge moth on two occasions. I think that this was a Eudocima aurantia, one of the fruit piercing moths. The first shot below was of one that was attracted to a MV light directed at the beach. It landed on wet sand and was soon swamped by a wave. It managed to recover and take flight but moved further out to see where it landed again. I waded out to try and rescue it for photos but it would always fly out further when I was near. I last saw it floating on the surface with several sphinxes and all were slowly drifting out to sea. My second encounter was of a dead moth that had either drowned as above or was trampled by someone on the beach. It really was an enormous moth. Mission Beach, Qld, Australia. Sep 2014
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 10:34:34 +0000