The Moth

In March last year, I wrote about a very large, green caterpillar that Jack found in the garden. Steve Ogden from Wildlife Insights said he thought it was a Speckled Emperor and advised us to give it a box of leaf mould to pupate in. Jack found an old tin bath which he filled with leaf mould and the caterpillar duly burrowed down and formed a chrysalis. Steve did say it could be weeks or months before it hatched out, or it may not hatch out at all. For months the tin bath has been on the veranda, just outside the front door, nothing much appearing to happen.  On Saturday evening I went to water the herbs on the veranda and, luckily, spotted the moth trying to climb out of the bath! Jack had put branches in the bath for the new moth to use to climb out, but it hadn't found them, was repeatedly climbing up the sides of the bath and then falling back. Jack rescued it and put it on a small quince tree in the front garden. At that stage, its wings were tightly furled. Over the next couple of hours, the wings gradually opened. We took photos throughout the process, so it's possible to see the sequence:

Steve Ogden confirms that it is indeed a Speckled Emperor Moth. It had flown away by morning, so I'm glad we were able to get the final photo, despite the fact that it was dark by the time the wings were fully opened. Our neighbour Craig was here and clearly thought we were a little crazy, to be so excited about a moth, but after all this time we were glad to see the end of the process!