Scene and heard

When I stepped out of my apartment earlier, I thought someone had dropped a brooch of some sort. I didn’t measure it but did picture it by my foot for context. I’m sure the wingspan is between 5 and 6 inches.

It was only when I nudged it with a piece of paper and it fluttered its wings, that I thought, wrongly, that it was an actual butterfly. I then decided to nudge it to safety. As it kind of doesn’t look real, I had visions of someone moving it with their foot and hurting it, or a kid deciding it was something to play with. And for right or wrong, I thought it would be better outside than inside.

When the skies suddenly opened up, it looked uncomfortable and finally flew a few feet to some shelter. Now, hours later and post dusk, it is still holding onto the banister where it sought shelter earlier. I couldn’t guess why it wasn’t moving when it obviously could. I thought that it would hopefully get hungry and fly off. However, when I discovered what it was, I found that it is very likely to be a female, putting out pheromones to attract males to mate with. She is likely to be visited by any number of males from within a several mile radius. And no, she will not get hungry as the adults don’t eat.

http://butterflies.aa6g.org/Butterflies/Raised/polyphemus.html