Day 11 Critters: Moth

Joel is a lover of all creatures great and small. On one of our trips where baggage weight was an issue we did not bring many toys. But Joel started a tradition we affectionately call ‘moth wars’ (you know, like Star Wars minus all the aliens and light sabers but with a lot more wings…).

Moth wars started right here:

Joel came in one afternoon holding a wiggly flapping moth saying,
“Look Mom! Look what he does when I tickle him!”
Gently flicking the poor thing, he flapped that much harder.
Fear just never crossed his mind…

His next discovery was that one in each hand was like a little fight and thus began the game of Moth Wars. I don’t know how you tell who wins. He always let them fly away after a while.

We quickly learned the difference between a butterfly and a moth (wings up or wings down?), but you would never be able to guess by their colors or patterns! In the rainforest we saw some of the most beautiful butterflies ever, but here at our house there have also been some incredible moths! One had light blue and orange lacey patterns that reminded me of an Indian sari fabric. Unfortunately I didn’t run for the camera that day.

But I did once. This is not a great picture as I was too chicken to get any closer lest this Mothra fly up into my face. I had a jug of paint on the front porch (which used to be our paint shop) and one morning I reached for the paint and saw this behemoth (pun intended) staring up at me.

I’m estimating a wingspan of about 7 inches. There supposedly exist moths up to 11 inches spread wide, but 7 was plenty for me to stand back. Guess he just thought a yellow jug was a pretty stealthy place for a yellow moth to snooze the day away…

I didn’t really feel like painting much that day anyway.