in my next life.....

"I want to be a Luna Moth", quoth a daycare parent who shall remain anonymous. and NO, it isnt' me. honest. though the idea has it's merits.

what?
yes. this morning, while running errands, I spied this little creature on the side of Cumberland Farms:

I saw my first Luna Moth while I was at Camp Shelby, MS a few years back. I had never seen one up close before, and BAM! there it was, on a loading dock, at about the same time of day, but in a bit more humid weather. So today i took the picture at left, and sent it to Tracey. She replied with a message that Z wanted me to bring it home to show the daycare kiddos. Sounded like a good idea, but I had no way of getting it home.

FFWD to later in the afternoon,  and I had to go run more errands. (yes, i am effecient like that). this time, however, I took a rubbermade container with me, just in case the moth was still there. And lo, it was!

So I snagged it.

Once home, we put it into a small screened in 'cage' suitable for insects and such. Z was right, the daycare kids thought that it was pretty cool. For about 10 seconds. Which, in my mind, is a WIN.

We decided that we might want to keep it for a day or so, just to show off for the next group of kiddos. So, being the interested observer that I am, I googled Luna Moth to find out what it likes to eat, etc. This is what I found....

"Although rarely seen due to their very brief (1 week) adult lives, Luna Moths are considered common. As with all Saturniidae, the adults do not eat or have mouths.[2] They emerge as adults solely to mate, and as such, only live approximately one week. They are more commonly seen at night." Link to article here.

huh. so......I was off the hook. No need to sacrifice my lettuce to Mothra. Being the kind humanitarians that we are (okokok...SHE is), my wife and I decided that we should probably let the moth go free to go about it's 'business' sooner rather than later. One of the parents spied the cage on the table, so we felt compelled to share our new knowledge. This illicited the above comment, to which we shared a chuckle.

We opened the cage later in the evening, once the sky had darkened, and the little bugger just hung out on the ceiling of the porch. When i left for work around 1055pm, it was still there. Be free, little porn star, be free!