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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsI want a Poodle Moth.
It's been compared to a fluffy dog, a Pokemon character and a Power Rangers villain but whatever it is, the Venezuelan poodle moth has captured the Internet like Mothra in a bad Japanese movie. Now it's up to the experts to figure out exactly where this moth belongs on the tree of life.
The first thing to emphasize is that the poodle moth is no phony concoction like the jackalope, dogerpillar or chupacabra. Its cute, furry, scary look is totally in line with what's expected for a neotropical ornamental moth. In fact, cryptozoologist Karl Shuker found a similar picture of a white, fuzzy critter known as Diaphora mendica, or muslin moth, a member of the lepidopteran family Arctiidae.
The Venezuelan poodle moth is even more bizarre-looking than your run-of-the-mill muslin moth. That's largely due to the details that zoologist Arthur Anker of Brazil's Federal University of Ceara captured in the photograph he took in the Gran Sabana region of Venezuela's Canaima National Park several years ago.
http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/27/13510167-bizarre-poodle-moth-fascinates-and-frightens-the-masses-online?lite
eShirl
(18,505 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)At first you can't tell the difference, but the moths are a tiny bit smaller and can't change directly as quickly. Both beat their wings at something like 60 beats per second, so you can't see the wings move. Our garden is a butterfly and hummingbird sanctuary and regularly attracts them (we're on the Monarch migration path too).
That's one weird looking moth, but it's so cute I want to pet it. Then again, I pet spiders.
marzipanni
(6,011 posts)(from a tomato hornworm) flew into our kitchen one night and I thought it was a bird at first glance. It went behind our old gas stove and I thought it might be attracted to the pilot light and put it out, burning itself and causing the gas to escape without burning.
http://www.birds-n-garden.com/hummingbird_moths.html
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)Baitball Blogger
(46,765 posts)They come out at dusk.
Baitball Blogger
(46,765 posts)nolabear
(41,992 posts)Man, I wish it was the size of a poodle. I think.
LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)Without the nonstop jabber, naturally.