Look Closely

A walk through your backyard may not be as thrilling as an African safari. However, if you put on your jungle explorer hat, you’re almost certain to stumble across one of Nature’s miracles right under your nose. The key is to look closely, especially when you spy something out of the ordinary.

Take, for example, the cecropia moth (pictured above) that landed on a stone garden gnome outside a friend’s house one afternoon. Seeing the large beautiful moth was a thrill in itself and a welcome photo opportunity. The moth cooperated beyond our expectations, allowing us to approach closely and me to use my camera’s macro lens. That’s when I noticed two small cream-colored objects near the moth’s hind end. Fastened to the garden sculpture with a brownish “glue” secreted from the insect’s body, the objects turned out to be eggs – the normally unobserved beginning of a new cecropia moth generation. After mating, the female cecropia moth can produce hundreds of eggs, which are typically laid at night on the underside of leaves, so I’m unsure why the one I photographed was active during the day and had chosen a garden ornament during this critical part of its life cycle.

Perhaps the best part of an unusual wildlife sighting is the trip to the library or the internet search afterwards, which help to round out our knowledge of natural history.