The Long-Suffering Wife was headed out this morning, stopped, backed off, and hollered, “Do you want to come and take a picture of this weird moth?” She knows me so well.
Yep, that’s a weird moth! A big one, too!
And gorgeous markings! I took a few pictures, got fairly close without it flying away. Then I poked it a bit to prompt a departure so that TLSW could get out.
Instead of flying away, it did this! Even more beautiful!
Maybe it’s how or where I poked it? Or I have a pheramone issue that I’m not aware of. Either way, what do I know about the erotic zones of moths? It looked like a mating display to me.
I finally just moved the doormat off to the side, and when I checked a half hour or so later, the moth was gone.
Fly safe! Have fun! Make good decisions!
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 
It’s a hawk moth, which has a large number of varieties within the group. It looks a lot like a privet hawk moth , but not the same, so it’s probably native to you 🙂 Fabulous beasts 🙂
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Try this one… White-lined Sphinx https://www.inaturalist.org/check_lists/258971-Sphingidae-of-California
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Hmm, my comment ‘White-lined Sphinx’ with a link got trashed…. maybe it got through but try a site called inaturalist dot org
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