the beasts and the butterfly?

during our walk down at the beach, we stumbled upon a recently deceased ‘winged creature’. i had never seen anything like it before (and neither had the dogs, who were very interested in it). i only wished that i had my macro lens with me to capture it’s details close-up. i actually considered bringing it home with me, but i didn’t have anything to safely carry it in.

at the time i thought it to be a butterfly (duh marcia…butterflies have thinner and less furry bodies!).

after much research i can properly identify it as a Cecropia Moth, Hyalophora Cecropia. it is one of the largest moths found in North America.

pretty cool.

UPDATE August 2013: this is what it looks like as a caterpillar…also pretty cool!