Amazing and beautiful green moth photographed on the "moth wall" at REGUA. The moths are attracted to Tungsten and Mercury vapor lights. There are moth watchers out there, like bird watchers and the variety of moths are endless. For me it is a whole new world of beautiful life forms. According to the Smithsonian Encyclopedia the moth is part of the Lepidoptera family. There are about 160,000 different moths in the world (!) while there are 17,500 different butterflies.
This stunner is considered a common moth in the Atlantic Rainforest,. I wish I had been able to see it with it's wings open...next time.
I am guessing here, but this fellow looks like it is in the family Noctuidae.There are 35,000 known species out of 100,000 or more owlet moths. There are no "Owl Eyes" on it's wings but from what I can find many of the Owlet Moths don't have the eyes. At my local butterfly house I saw enormous Owl Butterflies with the distinctive white eye and black ring.
