Black Witch Moth: Jefferson Co, July 3rd

[Anne Price]

David and Ted (and the rest of us who love cool flying things!):

 

I am thrilled and humbled to say that I saw one of these amazing creatures on Friday, July 3^rd in my Littleton (south of Columbine HS) yard around 10:30 AM, but I had no idea what I was looking at. It emerged from under my ancient wooden deck, and slowly flapped around the yard, never landing long enough for me to get a good look at it. At first I thought it was the brownest butterfly I had ever seen, and it seemed to be tired, or dying; the flapping motion was incredibly slow. Then I thought it might be a sphinx moth, but the large critter vanished pretty quickly over a fence, and that was that.  I truly wasn’t sure what I was looking at, until I saw this discussion.

 

And….I definitely saw a female.  Interesting lore and history here:  http://www.aquaticsportsadventures.com/Articles/Nature/Black_Witch_Moth/Black_Witch_Moth.html

 

Good bird and moth watching to all!

 

~Anne Price

Littleton