One magical Saturday morning, Aaron excitedly told me he had a surprise for me. I had slept in with Felix while Aaron was outside doing yardwork (already a delightful surprise). He led me downstairs and showed me... this.
He knows me so well.
The bug was stiff and dead, but still incredibly cool. It had metallic spikes and the most intricate details all over it. It was like Bowser from Mario in caterpillar form. I did some research and found out that it was a Hubbard's silk moth caterpillar. I left it on an index card on the counter and kind of forgot about it.
Fast forward a few days and Aaron again tells me he has another surprise for me.
A pupa crawled out from the caterpillar husk overnight! I thought all moths spun cocoons, but apparently most moths actually burrow and have a pupa stage. It turns out that my butterflies and moths unit from Elementary school left some gaps in my knowledge.
We left the pupa in our butterfly cage. A few days later, the moth emerged! She was beautiful! We noticed her at night, and I planned on checking her out and releasing her in the morning. Unfortunately, I didn't think to give her food or water. She was dead in the morning. Whoops. She had also laid a ton of eggs.
The moth has a really cool pink wing with a fake eye pattern that is concealed when she's in the resting position.
The whole life cycle, all from the same one specimen!
Needless to say, this was a very cool naturalist adventure for me. Thanks, Aaron!
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