This is a beautiful moth I photographed in my garden yesterday. Its presence was discovered  by my daughter Vaishnavi, who urged me to take this shot. This moth was  about 2 1/2 inches long and was lying on a leaf, quite camouflaged deep inside dwarf palm tree plants.

I later identified the species with the help of my close friend Mr.Jayaram, who is also a Macro Photographer and an expert taxonomist.

The moth is a common Hawk / Sphinx Moth and its scientific name is Daphnis nerii and its common name is ” Oleander Moth”.  This particular specimen   probably, just emerged.  Its favorite food plant is ” Nerium Oleander”. In our native language ” Tamil ” we call this plant as “ARALI”.  The flowers of this plant are regarded as having high spiritual significance in the temples.

Moths are Insects and they are active during nights.  It gets easily attracted by lights and it is interesting to see them circling the lights during nights. Most of them are nocturnal. But a few species are diurnal and crepuscular.

Like bird watching, watching Butterflies and Moths is known as butterflying and mothing.

Taken with Canon 1Ds Mark III with canon 100mm Macro. Used 580Ex flash with an off shoe camera cord.