Oomizuao (オオミズアオ)

Description:

This is a beautiful huge moth, with a wingspan of 11cm and a very powerful brown fore-wing margin. It has a white body, pinkish legs, and huge pale lime-green wings. The wings are marked with four easily visible eye-spots. Actias artemis, is a close relative to and looks very similar to the American Luna Moth, Actias luna. The moth spotted here is a female as its antennae are less bushy than the males.

Habitat:

Actias artemis is a moth native to Japan, Korea, China, India and Malaysia. I spotted this one mid afternoon and it was fairly inactive. They tend to be more active at night, and this one stayed on the Grevillea till early evening before taking off. This one was in a semi rural district, many vegetable fields around, but also a very noisy road nearby and some light industry. They tend to fly only at night, in Spring and Summer.

Notes:

They are known as oomizuao (オオミズアオ) in Japanese. After first spotting this one inside the house and photographing it, I carefully moved it out into the garden for another few pictures. It was a real treat to see this moth - not only was it really spectacular but they are not very commonly seen.