Imperial Moth (Eacles imperialis)

My son took our dog out back night before last and yelled from the back deck that there was the biggest moth he had ever seen out there. I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures of it. It was still out there the next morning, laying eggs (supposedly they are non-destructive, so maybe I can track a few as caterpillars and get some shots of them as well).

I looked it up online and found it was an Imperial Moth. It is a really cool little beast and I was fairly happy with the detail of the hairs. Not so happy with the color, but this was a Coolpix on a dark back deck with a yellow "bug light" illumination. The flash shots were too blue and the non flash shots were too yellow (and noisy). I'm still playing with the colors, but I wanted to share what I had so far...

This one shows the size -- these are 6" deck planks, so it is in the upper end of the species size (said to be 4-5.5" in wingspan). It also shows the color fairly accurately -- bright yellow with lilac details and legs:


This one was without a flash, so the color is a bit off (and noisy), but it shows the beautifully thick shaggy hair on the back:


Here is the leg detail:


The other few shots and the full size versions are here: http://cmpalmer.smugmug.com/gallery/661054