R and I have noticed a certain thickening of our waistlines lately, and as part of the procedure for reducing back into our wardrobes we have begun walking at lunchtime. It may work out that it is not the walking that does the trick, but the fact that we are no longer sitting around for an hour polishing off every leftover that we can find.
So today, feeling extra virtuous as we had gone walking in the drizzle and wind and coolness, we walked past the prison, and were heading back home to have sandwiches we saw a Huge Insect sitting on the footpath. It looked more like a cicada than anything, being green and having that cicada shape. I'm not very keen on handling big insects, I like them more in theory than in actual presence, so I got R to pick it up off the footpath, so it wouldn't get squashed. It was at least the length of my longest finger, and thick and heavy. The wings and the top of the thorax were green, and the wings had little brown speckles. I thought it was a girl as the antennae were small.
This afternoon I rang Te Papa to find out what it was, as I wondered if it could be something new. I never knew we had giant moths.
We do though, puriri moths. So I went back and caught it and put it in a lunchbox and took it to c's daycare to show the kids. I had found out the caterpillars live for about 7 years before pupating, that they drill holes in trees and live on the scar tissue, that they make their hole slope upwards and build doors so the rain doesn't come in, and that the moths live 1-3 days and have no mouth parts. The kids were absolutely fascinated, and we found out she was a girl - she was laying eggs fit to bust. The adults are just a sex machine, and she couldn't wait to make babies in a better environment than a lunchbox.
Its fuelled most of the Cversation this evening. I took her back to the local native forest, and put her and her eggs where they belong. Here's hoping some make it.
Ain't Upper Hutt a neat place, we hear moreporks at night, tui and woodpigeon during the day, and we are close enough to the bush that it spills onto the footpaths!
Posted by Toni at September 23, 2004 08:15 PM