arimuse

here are pics of a butterfly that just hatched - I was sweeping and almost swept it up (before it started to fluff out the wings). You can see the wings arent fully open on the edges. I put it on a bush and about 10 min later it flew to the top of a tree. I never saw one like this and when I looked up the pics I took I found it was called a silk butterfly. Very pretty, and I have to watch for the caterpillers, cus I think I picked one off my tomatoes (it looks something like a horn worm w/o the horn). sharet
(I think it looks like a cat's face to scare away birds from eating it)

PurplePassion

OH, for beautiful. I love butterflies and usually have a couple of swallowtails around here for the summer.

scrappycats

OH, gorgeous. Is that head and body fuzzy? it sure looks like it.

arimuse

yes, the body part was quite soft/fuzzy looking, but the head itself was under the fuzz part. once the wings were fully open it was very large

feline fanatic

What a beautiful butterfly and big too! It kind of reminds me of a Luna Moth because of the fuzzy body and size. Except Luna Moths are green and have the swallow tail type wings. What a treat to find this in your yard.

gunny148

The back wings the design looks like something Lady GaGa would wear, ghezz now i insulted the critter, sorry

Murphy

I believe that is a beautiful specimen of a Cecropia Moth. Aren't they just awesomely gorgeous. We have these in our garden sometimes. Thank you for sharing.

http://www.google.com/search?q=cecro...Q&ved=0CCkQsAQ

carhop

It is beautiful but I think it is from the moth family

Tink's Mom

beautiful....we get Monachs around here...and some yellow ones..

arimuse

yes, moth, here's a link that shows the caterpiller too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antheraea_polyphemus
I thought I remembered silk butterfly, not giant silk moth. Pretty just the same. If I'm carefull I can keep an eye open for the caterpillers sharet