Mysterious moth captures imagination
By Sophia Fischer
sfischer@theacorn.com

BEAUTIFUL VISITOR-Jack Hall, 5, found this polyphemus moth outside his Thousand Oaks home and invited it in for a visit. The moth, which isn't an uncommon type, was unusually large.

Here’s a story that been bugging us since we first heard about it.

Recently, 5-year-old Jack Hall of Thousand Oaks was in his front yard and called for his father to come outside and examine what appeared to be a giant butterfly. Frank Hall had never seen a butterfly so large and beautiful and it captured his imagination.

"It was beautiful, with a wing span of about six-and-a-half inches," the elder Hall said. "It had markings on it that looked like eyes that made it seem as though you were looking into the face of an owl."

Hall did some online research and found a photo of an Emperor Gum Moth that looked just like the one in his yard. But those creatures are found only in Australia and New Zealand. Hall wondered how the insect in his yard had come to the Conejo Valley, whether it migrated here or was introduced by a zoologist or a collector.

"I posted something about it on a website and a lady from Pasadena wrote back that she’d found one, too," Hall said.

Surprisingly, there are people to call about things such as this.

David Van Epp, a biologist with the Ventura County Agricultural Commissioners office, is an expert on moths and speculated about the possibility of the bug being an Emperor moth, which is highly sought after by collectors.

"Moths can hitchhike in various types of cargo. It’s highly unlikely, but you never know," Van Epp said. "Maybe somebody is raising them and one got loose. We do have collectors who occasionally lose one."

This happened in the 1860s when the gypsy moth was accidentally introduced into the United States by a French artist living in Massachusetts.

According to Van Epp, the moth escaped in a misguided experiment to try to create stronger silk by pairing the gypsy moth with the silkworm. It wasn’t long before the gypsy moth had became a gigantic agricultural pest bent on the defoliation of trees.

"Now they have a big gypsy moth problem on the East Coast, with no known predators," Van Epp said.

Back to Hall’s moth.

Van Epp suggested taking a look at online photographs of two common local moths to see if they resemble the moth in the Hall’s yard. The polyphemus moth and the ceanothus moth are both native to California and carry a design on their wings that looks like an eye.

Much to Hall’s disappointment, the photo of the polyphemus moth was an exact match to the one he and his son had found. It is one of our largest moths, usually found in forests, marshes and parks.

The insect’s blue, black and yellow eyespots resemble the eyes of an owl and are used as a defense against predators such as squirrels, mice, bats and birds.

In the eyes of Jack Hall, it was a big discovery.