WEYMOUTH residents are all aflutter following several sightings of large moths.

Sue Hogben, of Roman Road, was startled to find a huge moth had landed on her floral skirt when she was tending to her greenhouse.

She said: “I’d just been opening up the greenhouse and as I was walking out I felt something on my skirt “I’m absolutely petrified of the big black spiders you can get, so at first I was worried it was one of those, but then I saw this massive moth.

“I’m quite used to seeing all sorts of wildlife like butterflies and moths in my garden but I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life. It was huge.

“It must have liked the flowers on my skirt.” The Dorset Wildlife Trust (DWT) identified the creature as a Privet Hawk Moth, measuring at 110mm, which is a common type of night-flying moth found in the south of the UK between June and July.

George Tealey, of Argyle Road, sent us a photo of two big moths he found in his garden.

He said: “I’ve never seen anything like it before, they were about three inches across.

“At first I thought they were just leaves and then I realised they were moths, they moved up the post a bit and then stayed there for two days.”

DWT identified them as Eyed Hawkmoths, measuring 80mm.

They are also common night-flying moths that can be found in England and Wales between May and July. These sometimes display a pair of pink and blue ‘eyes’ on their hind wings when they are disturbed.

Sally Welbourn, communications officer at DWT, said: “The great thing about hawk moths is their size and their gentleness. Kids absolutely love them.

“There are 17 hawk moth species, nine of these are native to the UK and eight are migrants, these two here are native.”

Ozzy Matthews, six, also spotted a large moth while playing on his trampoline.

He said: “It was on the trampoline net and looked a bit like a crunched up leaf. I tried to throw something at it so it would move but it didn’t fly away.”