And the cricket enjoyed the stillness. --Eric Carle
I was greeted Saturday afternoon with a most wonderful surprise, our luna moth had emerged! This was the first time I had ever seen one up close and I can't even begin to tell you how unbelievably beautiful this thing was! Soft green wings, a soft fuzzy body, feather-like antennae and the sweetest eyes! I was immediately, totally and completely in love with her! The Monkey Man was entirely amazed and in love as well. He held her and stared at her and just couldn't get enough of her!
To be honest, I didn't even realize she had emerged at first, the green of her wings had her so well camoflauged against the background of the butterfly enclosure, it was the cocoon that I noticed. It had these little tufts of white silk sticking out that it didn't have before.
I couldn't believe that something so big had come out of an opening so small! We dissected the cocoon and found the remnants of the chrysalid inside. SO COOL!
We took her up to the Monkey Man's room for observation. She was very docile and mellow and didn't seem to mind being handled at all. She was SO soft and fuzzy!
We just couldn't help but be completely enamored by this little being. The Piggy refused to hold her, but the Monkey Man was all over it!
She had the most amazing face! Big black eyes and feathery antennae, like a sweet little flying teddy bear! And by all means, click on the photo to enlarge it, you too will be taken in by the sweetness of that face!
I feel so lucky that the children and I were able to spent a hour or so with such a fantastic little creature! We finally decided it was time to let her go, so we took her out front. She immediately started crawling up the side of our house. I figured she might have needed to rest after being handled. No sooner had she started climbing up the wall, a large gecko appeared. The Monkey Man flipped out! He was none to happy at the prospect of watching a "survival of the fittest" moment in such an up close and personal way! I ran to get a stick and a flashlight, in hopes of dissuading the gecko from making a meal out of our newly emerged moth. By the time I came back, the gecko was busy dealing with a territory dispute with another gecko and our luna moth had sailed quietly into the night! It is comforting to know such a beautiful thing is gracing my night sky! Good luck little luna, we hope you have a wonderful life and find another luna soon!
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