la mariposa de la muerte

One morning last week I got up and, as usual, headed for the bathroom. When I looked in the mirror, I saw hanging on my wall, near the ceiling, a huge brown and black moth. (see picture) I totally freaked. The wing span on the thing was at least 8". It was just sitting there perfectly still. Being somewhat of a wimp around bugs I got the broom and started poking at him, hoping to encourage him to fly out the window, which of course is in a different room. The only direction he wanted to fly was toward the mirrors. I could hear his wings flapping - they were not wispy little things. He'd flap around for a bit and then I guess he'd be tired because he'd stop, perched somewhere. The whole time I'm not exactly shouting, but loudly encouraging this guy to leave, telling him "you have to go out" and "no, this way." If my neighbor heard me she probably thought I was losing it entirely - la loca norteamericana. After three or four attempts, he came to rest on the soap dish. I summoned up all my courage, got a plastic bowl with a lid, trapped him in it and released him out the window. Whew - that was over. So I thought. A couple of evenings later, I'm sitting there watching TV with the wondow open (you have to understand that no one has screens on their windows here) and in flies another giant moth. This time he's closer to the window so the broom trick worked. I ushered him out and shut the window. In between these two visits I had seen one of these moths hanging on the building where my friend lives. I asked her about them and she said yes, they do sometimes come inside, but she didn't know anything else about them.
Although by this time I had decided that these things were harmless, I wanted to find out what they were. So I started searching the internet and discovered that they are called the black witch moth in English and la mariposa de la muerte in Spanish and are common from Brazil as far north as Texas and Arizona. They are completely harmless and prone to flying inside building, attracted by the light. The Spanish name (butterfly of death) comes from a legend that if there is illness in the house and the moth flies in, someone dies. There are other fables surrounding this moth, which may be the largest species of moth in the world. (source: http://texasento.net/witch.htm) Since I had never seen one before about a week ago and now I've seen several (I've also seen some in the building where one of the archives is located) I'm thinking that it must a seasonal thing. They migrate, so maybe it's migration season here. The reports I read said that they have been seen in New Mexico as well as Texas and Arizona, but this is my first time. I think I've taken care of the problem by opening my windows less wide from both sides rather than just from one side (they slide sideways). What is ironic is that I've been struggling with the open window issue because of mosquitos and didn't realize I had a much bigger problem!