Visitor

I have a visitor today--a Giant Leopard Moth. This guy (girl?) is sitting right at the back doorsill--he's lucky the dogs didn't step on him. When I was out taking pictures he never moved, and I didn't poke him--I didn't want to bother him, though I'd love to see his wings spread out. He's very beautiful, isn't he? I've never seen one before. As you can see from the 2nd picture, he's quite big, more than an inch and a half long. I hope he'll be safe there, until he's up to moving on.

Apparently the caterpillars feed on honeysuckles. If they're what produced this beautiful creature, the evil tartarian honeysuckles have at last a reason for existing. (though I still don't like them!)