A Lesson on Moths

Tori found this Polyphemus Moth at Grandpa's house. The girls had fun letting it climb on them.

Later Lucy found this caterpillar that is the same species as the moth. 

They put both in a box for the night. 

Overnight the moth had laid eggs while the caterpillar had begun to wrap itself in a cocoon. The moths only live a few days, they don't even have mouths to eat, so we released her and kept the eggs and cocoon on the road with us in our praying mantis enclosure (it zips shut, thank goodness).

About 10 days later, the eggs began hatching and the tiny little caterpillars emerged. If you look closely you can actually see one on the right coming out of the egg.

 They are so tiny. To give you an idea on size, Journey is holding one in her hand.

It's supposed to take 5-6 weeks for them to grow big enough to build their own cocoon. Since our original caterpillar cocooned so late in the year, it will probably wait until Spring to emerge. Otherwise it should be out in a couple weeks.