My daughter called me that day to photograph a moth which she thought was Oleander Hawk-moth(Daphnis nerii). When I went close to take photograph I realized that it was not Daphnis nerii. It was looking very similar to Daphnis nerii, but was brownish all over instead of the bright camouflage green Oleander Hawk-moth had. You can see Oleander Hawk-moth here as well as in my Macro Stitching a Moth post. You can also see its caterpillar at Metamorphosis.
I photographed this moth using my Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM on Canon EOS 5D mark II with Rayflash fitted to Canon Speedlite 580EXII Flash. All photos were taken hand held at an awkward angle perching on a wooden stool as the moth was sitting close to fluorescent tube light outside my house. Ant which passed by during the shoot gave nice dimension of scale to the photograph.
Later going through identification I found that it did not even resemble another likely candidate Daphnis hypothous. Later at Indian Moths Yahoo Group I found out that it is Daphnis minima. This species is endemic to the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka. I thank Dr Ian J. Kitching and Roger C. Kendrick For helping me out in identification.
For more details on Daphnis minima check this link.
Nice profile shot! Like it!
Yea, ant in the picture is giving good dimension of scale, sometime it
Dear Shanavas All photos were taken hand held at an awkward angle perching on a wooden stool as the moth was sitting close to fluorescent tube light outside my house. Unfortunately (or Fortunately) nobody took photos of my awkward position while taking these pictures 😉 Second picture I placed camera on the wall parallel to the moth which gave that perspective.
Regards
Krishna mohan
Nayan Thanks a lot
Regards
Krishna mohan
Oh…. I too got confused with this moth. Thanks for the explanation.