Emergence

Saturday afternoon I was checking to see how many Luna Moths had emerged in our make shift nursery (at that time ten*). I noticed a cocoon walking across the floor of said nursery.

I watched and waited. And was rewarded with a moth emerging from its cocoon.

The light wasn't great, the moth was moving frantically, looking for something to grab on to, and I was shooting through the not so clean walls of the aquarium serving as the nursery.

It seemed a bit awkward on its feet as it struggled to free itself and find a safe place to perch where it could inflate its wings.

Eventually it made it out and began wandering.

And found one of the strategically placed sticks and proceeded to climb.

Note the tiny wings and fat body. Once it found a safe place to perch it began the process of pumping fluid from that body into the wings (the topic of a future post).

~~~~~~~~~~

* Ten on Saturday. So far we have had thirty-eight Luna Moths successfully emerge from their cocoons. And we have released all but one of them out in to the world.  That one was too new to make it on its own. It will be flitting about our yard soon enough.