In Which I Meet a Moth

[aggienaut]

   Yesterday was a nice sunny day (for once), and it being a holiday I was enjoying a nice nap in my lush probably-overdue-for-mowing backyard lawn. As I drifted back to wakefulness I heard the sound of a small animal slowly rustling through the grass nearby. Thinking it might be one of hte large blue-tongue lizards I sometimes see, I carefully raised my head. What I beheld instead was a very large moth, a little longer than my index finger, making its way toward me "on foot" through the grass. The back edge of its wings were very ragged and a yellow jacket appeared to be attacking it.
    I sat up and the moth continued on toward me and then climbed up my torso, up my neck, and onto my ear, where it proceeded to remain for most of the rest of the evening even after I went into the house and attended to various things. I hope it didn't put any eggs in my ear that would be quite rude.

   Asking around, it appears to be a bogong moth, which I'm informed is edible. Australians probably put chicken salt on it, they put chicken salt on everything. I did not eat it.

   At one point it fell off me and fluttered its wings frantically (but didn't appear capable of flying, the fluttering was completely ineffectual), but when I got it in my hand again it immediately calmed down completely.

   Finally when I had to go to bed I put it on the outside table. It walked around as lively as when I'd met it once placed there. In the morning it was gone, I'm gonna assume Sancho the Possum didn't apply chicken salt to it and instead it has flown off to seek its fortune.

Comments

[egg-shell.livejournal.com]

Lovely. I once had a tattered monarch butterfly be attracted to me and ride on my shoulder and head for a long walk. It's a magical thing.

[lookfar.livejournal.com]

I kept one like that when I was a teenager. It couldn't fly so I fed it sugar water in a spoon, which it sucked up with its probocis. I think it lived a day or two in my room.

[murielle.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's some moth!

I'm impressed by the moth and by your kindness toward it.

[lookfar.livejournal.com]

That is wild! I wonder why it found you so calming. Once when my cousin and I were on the Appalachian Trail, we came to a place on top of a mountain that was sheltered and open and full of long grass, and there were butterflies there, brown and orange, that lit on us over and over. I think they were tasting the salt on our skin.

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[rromantic.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, that's amazing!

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's still there because I haven't been there since the 90's but I used to go to this place called Marine World Africa USA that was sort of a combination zoo/amusement park that had an exhibit called Butterfly World that was an encased greenhouse-like area with a bunch of butterflies from all over the world flying around loose and I had my hand out palm down and I was wearing bright orange nail polish and a butterfly that was the exact same shade of orange landed on the back of my hand. I wish I'd had a camera.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Even moths have instincts and this big guy/girl saw you as a safe place. It's pretty amazing though thst it stuck with you all day!
What the heck is chicken salt?

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I "joke" that it's sweat derived from dehydrating the salt of chickens, and in actual fact I can't help but think of it as exactly that, but I think what it really is is salt flavored with chicken broth or something so that it carried a chicken taste. It's actually really good for salting fries and things.

[wpadmirer.livejournal.com]

I'm glad the yellow jacket didn't follow it to you!

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

That's one impressive moth.