A
Anonymous
Guest
To all:
At about 4:00 p.m., on Thursday, May 20, 2004, in Grover Cleveland Park, in Caldwell, New Jersey, I saw the moth in the picture below, on the asphalt walkway. The moth's wings were about 4 to 4 1/2 inches wide. Curiously, it seemed to be shivering. Its wings were certainly shaking, not in a fluttering way, and even its legs seemed unsteady. It took off, a few seconds after I took the picture, and flew into the grass. I have never seen a moth of this size anywhere in New Jersey before this. It seems to have the patterns and coloration of the Polyphemus moth, and various sites about insects indicate it to be a fairly common moth, east of the Rockies. But I have never seen one in New Jersey, before. Also, it's said that this is a nocturnal moth, and this was out in the daylight.
Interestingly, almost a year ago, July 19, 2003, someone sent a message to the University of Illinois Extension, about "a giant 4-inch wide brown moth with eye markings", on the trunk of a tree. They asked the university for any information. The answer was provided by Mary Thiesing, University of Illinois M<aster Gardener. She suggested that it might be the Cecropia moth, the Imperial moth or the Polyphemus moth. The web page is http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/winnebago/mgqa/030719.html. Ms. Thiesing also seemed to consider the Polyphemus moth fairly common in the United States, although the person contacting the university seemed unfamiliar with it, and even thought it might be harmful! If this person never saw it before, either, it can't be as common as they suggest.
If anyone has seen this moth before, and not known what it was, this seems to be the Polyphemus. There are those who seem to want to represent this as being plentiful in the United States, but I don't know of anywhere that has any large number of this moth. For some reason, it may, now, be growing in numbers, and those who depict it as common may be trying to convince people that the growing presence of the moth is natural. It may be interesting, if anyone can mention actually having seen this moth in significant numbers, in the continental United States, before very recently.
Julian Penrod
At about 4:00 p.m., on Thursday, May 20, 2004, in Grover Cleveland Park, in Caldwell, New Jersey, I saw the moth in the picture below, on the asphalt walkway. The moth's wings were about 4 to 4 1/2 inches wide. Curiously, it seemed to be shivering. Its wings were certainly shaking, not in a fluttering way, and even its legs seemed unsteady. It took off, a few seconds after I took the picture, and flew into the grass. I have never seen a moth of this size anywhere in New Jersey before this. It seems to have the patterns and coloration of the Polyphemus moth, and various sites about insects indicate it to be a fairly common moth, east of the Rockies. But I have never seen one in New Jersey, before. Also, it's said that this is a nocturnal moth, and this was out in the daylight.
Interestingly, almost a year ago, July 19, 2003, someone sent a message to the University of Illinois Extension, about "a giant 4-inch wide brown moth with eye markings", on the trunk of a tree. They asked the university for any information. The answer was provided by Mary Thiesing, University of Illinois M<aster Gardener. She suggested that it might be the Cecropia moth, the Imperial moth or the Polyphemus moth. The web page is http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/winnebago/mgqa/030719.html. Ms. Thiesing also seemed to consider the Polyphemus moth fairly common in the United States, although the person contacting the university seemed unfamiliar with it, and even thought it might be harmful! If this person never saw it before, either, it can't be as common as they suggest.
If anyone has seen this moth before, and not known what it was, this seems to be the Polyphemus. There are those who seem to want to represent this as being plentiful in the United States, but I don't know of anywhere that has any large number of this moth. For some reason, it may, now, be growing in numbers, and those who depict it as common may be trying to convince people that the growing presence of the moth is natural. It may be interesting, if anyone can mention actually having seen this moth in significant numbers, in the continental United States, before very recently.
Julian Penrod
