Nguyen Minh Dac, 54, in Bac Lieu province, showed reporters a photo of a huge butterfly resting on a 20 liter can. The wingspan of the butterfly nearly covered the width of a can.

“The butterfly flew to my house a week ago, in the evening. Locals call it ‘buom ba’ (queen butterfly). The butterflies rarely appear in our locality,” he said.

The locals in Vinh Binh commune of Hoa Binh district also said they saw huge butterflies recently. Le Huy Cam, 67, said a butterfly flew to his house, perched for a while and then flew away. 

“The butterfly in my house is huge. Its width is up to 30 centimeters,” he said. “This must be a rare species. I saw it in the past, but rarely."

Pham Thanh Nho, a man in Hoa Binh district, said his uncle discovered the butterflies with very large wings. 

After the long rains, residents in the provinces of Bac Lieu, Soc Trang and Kien Giang were surprised to see unusually large butterflies in their gardens.

“At first, they appeared in banana gardens. But later my uncle saw them in other orchids. Their wingspan is up to 35-40 centimeters,” he said.

Tran Thoai Phong in Soc Trang province also confirmed that he saw huge butterfly last month.

Phan Van Hon, head of Hamlet 17, denied that flocks of butterflies appeared in the locality, affirming that only several butterflies were seen. 

“They (butterflies) flew into our houses in the evening. They might be attracted by the light,” he said.

Hon said as the butterflies are big, they might frighten children, but they are not dangerous.

Mot The Gioi discovered that the butterflies are Attacus atlas, listed in Vietnam’s Red Book as “R” meaning they need protection. It is one of three butterfly species found in the red book.

Vietnamese call the butterfly ‘buom khe’ (carambola butterfly) because they grow on carambola trees.

This is the largest moth species in the world with wingspan of 25-30 centimeters. In general, female butterflies are bigger and heavier than males. This is a species hunted by butterfly collectors. In some countries, butterflies are bred to serve the fine arts industry.

There are about 150,000-250,000 moth species, and thousands of species still have not been described. 

Some analysts said the huge moth appeared in the west of the southern region might be because of climate change.

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