Sam's Find

Yesterday afternoon while I was fixing dinner Sam came running into the house yelling, "Come see what I caught". To my surprise Sam caught a beautiful moth. After researching it last night I found out that it is a Polyphemus moth. This is a giant silk moth and it gets its name from the large eye spots on its hind wings, referring to Polyphemus, the Cyclops of Greek mythology, who captured (and was eventually blinded by) Odysseus in Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey.

Sam used part of a 2-liter bottle and his bike helmet to capture it. This moth had a wing span of roughly 5 inches. Sam was VERY PROUD of his find and couldn't wait to show it to everybody. So this was the best way for everyone to see it. Remember that you can click on the pictures to see them bigger.

Here is Sam proudly showing me his find.

We are now outside (after admiring it for some time inside) getting ready to release it. As you can see with it's wings out it couldn't even fit inside the 2-liter! What a beautiful creature!

It sat on the ground for quite a while before it finally flew off.