Moth appreciation

Lew Zealand

Helper
I like moths, I had some caterpillars as pets as a kid because you can get them for free. Free pets are the best because they're so affordable when you lack income! Best yet: they even toss in the moth upgrade with your initial purchase. And you can trade with your friends! But I didn't have friends who liked moths so they never had any to trade. Kind of a bummer but whatever, instead I made friends with the guy in the nature center at the beach and traded a tobacco hornworm for a Cecropia moth caterpillar.

I fed him and he fattened up like a knobbly green waddling sausage, while the other Cecropia moth caterpillars at the Nature center were like half this one's size, barely the size of your finger. He spun a huge cocoon and.....

Never came out. It happens sometimes and maybe they need the cold cue from overwintering outside in northern latitudes while mine was kept indoors. It creeped me out what might have happened as I find the whole insect metamorphosis thing to be highly disturbing as I have body integrity issues. Gives me the shivers right now, blech! LOL but this wasn't even the reason for this post but you got a short story anyway.

Nooo nono the real reason for this is someone made a tier list for all the fliers in the Ark video game and put the Moth alone at the bottom in F tier.

Sacrilege! Crimes against the laws of Nature.

Also true, they really do suck. No attack at all, slow, comical, low weight carrying, lowish stamina.

But I love them so much. They are my favorite tame in all of Ark.

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survivor Bobbi Cooper, astride Mothra, drinking in another day's sunrise on her favorite map, Scorched Earth.
 

Grumples

Planter
It was our job as kids to pick the hornworms off the tomato plants in our garden. But more than once we made a "home" for a couple in a shoebox and broke off tomato branches to feed them until they cocooned. It annoyed our dad, but we still took care of them. We also found sphinx moth caterpillars and "homed" them as well. Sphinx moths are my favorite to this day. Though I am very partial to hummingbirds, so it makes sense. 🙂

I remember growing silkworms for school projects as well. We were always really popular with the school, cause we had lots of mulberry trees growing around our house. Free food!

Moths don't get the recognition they deserve. Mostly cause their caterpillars are considered pests, I guess. Or people think they're not as pretty as butterflies. But sitting out in summer time at sunset and watching the sphinx moths zooming around is one of my favorite things.
 

Lew Zealand

Helper
I had many wooly bears as a kid, like these:

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Heehee but they make fairly boring white/beige standard issue moths. Still fun to let 'em go afterwards!

And I caught Mourning Cloaks and Great Spangled Fritlilarries and the occasional Tiger Swallowtail but then what? I let 'em go because the fun is in the chase. The whole killing and pinning thing is for... other people. Hawkmoths are super awesome with their 100s of BPM!

Oh and even though my Cecropia moth never made it, I've seen a single one in the wild just hanging out in front of a store. Totally random and awesome!

Right now my favorite is the Rosy Maple moth:


And I need a plushie of it!
 
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