When you read the headline to this blog, you will probably wonder what in the world is he talking about.  Of course, I am not referring to images we associate with Halloween.  Instead, this witch is a very large nocturnal moth known as the black witch (Accalapha odorata).  While I have never heard of this moth breeding in Georgia, Georgians throughout the state do see it on rare occasions.

       The black witch is a dark moth with pointed wings.  In flight, it is sometimes mistaken for a bat.  It has a wingspan that ranges in size from 6 1/2 – 7 inches. This moth is the largest moth you will see in Georgia.  To give you some idea how big it is, its wings are wider than a dollar bill is long.  Females are larger than males.  Its wings have pointed tips.  Females display a pale pink scalloped band across the upper surfaces of its wings.

       The breeding range of the black witch extends from the southern portions of the Southeast to Brazil.  Experts believe the black witches that appear in Georgia and elsewhere throughout the South are individuals that migrated from Mexico.  At any rate, for some reason, from late spring to autumn some of these huge moths take off and fly northward.  As a result, black witches have been seen in most of the United States on into Canada.

       Here is the Peach State they have been seen in a number of locations including Ringgold, Jonesboro, Columbus, and elsewhere.  Amazingly earlier this month three black witches were spotted in Barnesville and Forsyth in just a couple of days. 

The first was seen by a homeowner that lives a few miles from downtown Barnesville.  This moth was resting beneath the overhang of a shed located near her home; a couple of days later she found a second black witch near her home. 

      In the meantime, a close friend saw one flying about his garage when the closed his garage doors late one evening.  Knowing I had never seen one of these rare visitors, he called me at 7:00 am the next morning to let me know he had trapped one in his garage.  I immediately jumped in the car and drove the short distance to his house.  I took a number of pictures of the moth, as it remained motionless on the windshield wipers of his car.  Interestingly the moth remained perched on the car even after he pulled the vehicle out of the garage.  Later he told me that the moth did not leave until the sun burned through the clouds later in the morning.

       I do not believe we know how common these moths are.  What are the odds that the three moths were seen a few miles from one another in Barnesville and Forsyth just happened to stop in the yards of two folks familiar with moths and butterflies.  If they did not know these insects were rare, their presence would never have been reported.

       Consequently, keep your eyes peeled for a really big moth that appears near your outside lights or on the wall of your garage.  Who knows?  You might be the next person to see one of Georgia’s rarest moths.

       If you have seen such a moth in the past, or happen to spot one in the future, please let me know.  Simply drop me a line that includes the date of the sighting and the name of the city where it was found.  Perhaps more black witches are flying about Georgia than we realize.