Romance is in the air

This morning when I woke up, our lady had panicked in the night and laid a few dozen eggs. She put them on a nearby cocoon - a hint to the occupant, perhaps? Who knows what she was thinking, they’re unfertilized eggs of course, and won’t ever develop.  I was starting to really worry for her when I noticed a nearby cocoon wobbling - they begin to rock and wiggle and sometimes roll around when the moth inside begins to make its attempts to get out. A half hour later another one was moving - I watched and waited and set up my phone and the ends of the cocoon got wet (that’s the enzyme, being released by the moth to make a hole) and things looked really promising for a while.

After a while, the cocoons dried and then both were suddenly stained with meconium from the inside - which isn’t a really great sign. Sometimes the moths aren’t strong enough to emerge on their own and die trying - I’m loathe to interfere more than I have to, so I kept waiting but thought that if several more hours passed without them being successful, I’d help.  A few hours later not only had the moths not emerged, they had largely stopped rolling around, though one of them vibrated with the desperate flutter of wings. 

I decided to intervene. Our lady fluttered nervously nearby, perhaps smelling a mate?  I carefully took a pair of scissors and a tiny crochet hook and made a hole. Almost immediately the moth inside turned itself around and climbed out - and I was thrilled, and then disappointed. It was another female - the worst case scenario. Two moths hanging around laden with eggs and waiting for a mate while the clock ran out. 

I took a sharp pair of scissors and cut a hold in one end of the other cocoon, and after a little consideration of its future, a healthy and enthusiastic male climbed out. He flapped his tiny wings madly and made for the closest female, the newly emerged one- I blocked her and encouraged him in the other direction- and he passionately made his way straight to the lady who’d been waiting two days for him.

 Within moments they were mated. 

They will stay like this now- joined together, for 12-24 hours, then detach, and she’ll lay her fertilized eggs.  Dude is capable of doing his duty again at that point, and if nobody else has come out of their cocoon, he can service the other female, and all parties will fulfill their destiny. 

Ain’t love grand. 

Stephanie