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John R. Powell | all galleries >> Galleries >> moths > Elephant Hawk-moth.
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01-JUN-2016 John R. Powell.

Elephant Hawk-moth.

I have waited years to photograph an Elephant Hawk-moth and it finally happened today. Last Autumn my friend accidently dug up a large pupa in her garden and she brought it to me for ID. I knew it was an hawk moth but it's too difficult to tell which at the pupa stage. I overwintered it and the moth emerged this afternoon, I've put the pupa in a bird peanut feeder last Autumn and put a few inches of fine soil in the feeder to cover the pupa and I kept in my conservatory through the winter, I've been putting it outside on the warmer days recently and bringing it in again at night. The reason I used a bird feeder was to give the moth somewhere to climb to pump up it's wings when it emerged from the soil and to make sure it didn't escape before I'd taken some shots. This shot is the moth on my friends coat collar and in the next shot it's on a plant in my conservatory. I will be releasing it this evening.

Canon EOS 60D ,Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Sigma Ringflash, 1/160s f/11.0 at 100.0mm iso400 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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