Last Moments of a Luna Moth

David Blackwell forwarded this interesting story and photos, taken on June 13th, to HFN, Thanks David and Peter for sharing them with us! - dp



I found this moth on the floor of the basement garage and showed it to several fascinated neighbours one of whom, Peter Cox, took photos. I measured the wingspan at rest. It was exactly four inches.



The luna moth suddenly flew towards a light in the ceiling, trapping itself in the light bowl. I took it outside still in the now detached-from-ceiling bowl and and released it in a wood at the end of our condo building.



It immediately disappeared in the trees, and the last time I saw it, though I didn't know this at the time, was in the beak of the blue jay that flew past the wood. (I thought the jay was carrying a bit of nesting material.)



This is the still shot taken at 200 feet (67 of my paces) of a blue jay about to seize the luna moth in flight. The luna moth had flown out of the wood after I'd "freed" it, and Peter Cox, who was standing nearby with camera in hand, saw it come out of the wood and also took this fantastic (but sad!) shot.

Posted at halifaxfieldnaturalists.ca on June 14, 2011