Under the dock light the other night Marianna rescued a lovely Moth moving it from the dangerous area over the water up to the mangroves instead. It was quite calm, not very fluttery at all so we were able to get a great picture of it after trying many settings on the camera.

We've managed, thanks to What's That Bug and BugGuide to identify it as an Underwing Moth, but no more specific than that as we stopped our research after learning how popular Catocalas are with collectors for the difficulty in identification. Love the idea that many of the names are related to marriage, continuing a tradition began by Linneaus. It would be cool to say we found The Bride or The Darling but I didn't want to devote hours and hours comparing all 111 species today.

Sorry folks, busy life intruding here!

But if you are familiar with Moths and would like to help us further identify this beauty we'd love to hear from you!

Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Superclass Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Subclass Pterygota (Winged Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Superfamily Noctuoidea
Family Erebidae
Subfamily Catocalinae
Tribe Catocalini
Genus Catocala (Underwings)

One last tidbit - Catocala, from the Greek "kato" meaning below or behind and "kalos" meaning beautiful.

A perfect name.