Wheeee!
I did a little happy dance today (trust me, be glad you didn’t see it) when I peered into my box-o-cocoons and discovered this:
Success! A cecropia moth! Well, OK, it’s only one but it means a lot to me (and, I suspect, to the moth…).
There she was (I’m pretty sure it was a female, as it looked full of eggs and had smaller antennae), just sitting there slowly pumping her wings.
So beautiful!
I took her outside to show my husband (out in the garage) and as soon as the sun hit her she started to “shiver” in an effort to get things ready for takeoff. Sure enough, in another minute she leapt off the leaf and into the air soaring straight for the trees.
It was really amazing to watch. I hope she gets a chance to mate and lay eggs before becoming someone’s dinner (to a bird, she must look like a big, juicy porterhouse steak…).
sigh.
i love that you have a “box-o-cocoons”!
Thank you! And you have the most adorable doggies!
More great photos. They are very good.
I found your blog when looking around on Google for the caterpillars we found the other day. They were these awesome Cecropia Moth caterpillars. Oddly enough they were in town outside the Hancock Fabric store?! One had made a cocoon on the store window and two more caterpillars were crawling around in the vegetation outside the store. My kids loved looking at them.
Nice picture and nice blog!
Thank you! It is amazing how hardy some caterpillars can be, as it sounds like they were doing just fine in town.