Mother Moth
I was driving just a mile or so from home and saw this Polyphemus moth in the on-coming lane. There must be all of 40 cars in Geauga county, so I was able to abandon my car, leave my door open and rescue her from the middle of the road without becoming too much of a traffic menace. I am familiar with this species as I have already collected one for my bug collection and have it mounted on my living room wall. I could tell it was an absurdly gravid female,but she was having problems. I was certain she was dying-they live less than a week as adults (the adult only has a vestigial mouth-it can not eat).
By the time I got her home, I had decided that I didn’t want to kill and mount her, but it would be nice to have her fluttering around the yard for a bit. She could barely fly, but I let her out of the car and she flopped around and managed to get into a low branch in the oak tree next to my driveway. That very second, a Grey Tufted Titmouse blasted in from stage right and tagged this moth that was 2x its size.
Originally Posted 23Jun2013
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