Do moths grow to 2"/5cm in length in WA state?

[Roger C. KENDRICK]

Hi Matt,

Sounds like a species of hawkmoth (sphinx in the USA). If nobody from the Americas
replies, get hold of a copy of "The Moth Book" by Holland (Dover edition, circa
1961, should be available in most good libraries) or check out the Moths of the USA
website, which illustrates most hawkmoths that occur in the USA; use the listing
for your State to narrow down the options.

Hope this helps,

Roger.

MechB747 wrote:

> One of the 2 emails I recieved got erased somehow so I'll just post the
> response here...   This afternoon the moth was still there.  It had moved from
> the window over to behind the porch light... in fact he was stuck in a spider
> web.  So, I began nudging him out of the spider web.  He woke up to being moved
> by me and put his antannae up.  Once he was free from the spider web he just
> sat there.  I came back out with my camera and he
> had his wings up like last night and was shaking again.  I went inside to
> switch camera lenses and when I went back out he was REALLY shaking.... do they
> do this right before they take flight?  because he then flew away (after
> crashing into the wall and the railing first)....
>
> It's wings were swept back at a pretty good angle kinda like a wing on a
> supersonic aircraft...   He was mostly tan with black,  the wings were tan with
> a gold colored stripe running down the middle of it... from his body out down
> the wing.  and there were thinner white stripes running front to back on the
> wing... probably 5 per side or something. The leading and trailing edges of his
> wings were a lighter shade of brown.
>
> Matt

________________________________________________
Roger C. KENDRICK   B.Sc.(Hons.)
PhD student & Demonstrator, Dept of Ecology & Biodiversity
The University of Hong Kong
mailto:kendrick at hkusua.hku.hk
http://web.hku.hk/~kendrick/hkmoth.htm   « Hong Kong Moths »
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/1085/   « H.K. Lepidoptera Group »
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