Wildlife photographers help many of us keep in touch with the most peculiar and rare creatures residing on Earth. Without them, we would not even know what some animals look like. Take, for instance, such rare and endangered beings as Philippine eagles or white-bellied pangolins, which have been captured by photographers long before they’ll go extinct. One such photographer, David Weiller, who explores the wonders of nature, recently showed us another rarely-seen animal⁠—the Brahmaea hearseyi moth.

Weiller, who lives in France, told Bored Panda that he picked up wildlife photography as a hobby in 2008 when he traveled to Africa with his friend and wildlife photographer Thomas Marent who was taking pictures for his primate book (“Like Us: Encounters with Primates”).

More info: davidweiller.com | Instagram | twitter.com

Image credits: DAVID WEILLER

The species can be found in the Northeast Himalayas, Western China, Sundaland, Burma, and the Philippines. One of these places, Sabah, Borneo, is where Weiller encountered the peculiar moth. “This was a lucky find as it was attracted at night to the light of my bungalow in the rainforest. When I saw it, freshly hatched and with its striking patterns, I was so surprised. After observing it fly around the light
for a while, it settled for the night on a nearby tree trunk,” he told us. While the moth was calmly sitting on a branch, the photographer managed to take a stunning HD video of its markings.

When ask about the process of taking this video, Wriller said: “Some shots need maybe 1 day or 1 week to get, this was simple shot, moths are relatively easy to take picture of in the cold hours of the early morning as they are not yet warm enough to fly away and stay relatively still. The next morning, at dawn, it was still sitting quietly on the same spot. I set up my tripod, camera and macro lens, and started to take a few pictures and videos of it slowly getting warm by flapping its wings. A few minutes later it, the sun came up and it flew away toward the blue sky.”

This moth belongs to the Brahmin moth family, also known as Brahmaeidae. Their family consists of 7 different genera of nearly 40 different moth species.

Image credits: goldentakin

What makes all of these species unique is their intricate wing patterns that simply captivate everyone who encounters them.

Image credits: Dr. Alexey Yakovlev

Brahmaea hearseyi is probably the most bizarre one from its family, as its brown-colored wings could be easily confused with the eyes of a tiger.

Image credits: Pavel Kirillov

Image credits: Хомелка

Image credits: goldentakin Follow

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