visiting royalty

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Regal moths, a.k.a royal walnut moths (Citheronia regalis)

One of the great things about summer are the visitors that show up on your backporch at night, attracted by the bright lights. Two weeks ago it was a giant stag beetle.

This morning, I had a twofer. 

It would be tempting to think that these royal walnut moths are the adult version, several generations removed, of the caterpillar I found and blogged about in August 2010: junior devil. It's probably not, odds are overwhelming against such an occurrence, but it's fun to imagine that I could be so lucky to be visited twice by the same creature in two different forms, although in this case the incredible green hulk morphed into handsome physicist Dr. Bruce Banner, although I don't remember him being a redhead.  

The adult royals have the largest body (not the greatest wingspan) of any moth that's found north of Mexico. The caterpillars ARE incredible hulks—the legendary, green and over-sized hickory horned devils.

Hickory Horned Devil

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