I’d hoped my Luna moth would be a guy because I love their giant “antlers”. She wasn’t a guy, but she did even better by being a girl and attracting a guy! It was rainy and crappy, but I went out yesterday after work, wandering in search of a place to put my bee hoce, and noticed a blotch of pale green on the outside of the enclosure I’d built for the Luna cocoon and the two Spicebush Swallowtail chrysaliseses…es. “Outside?” I thought, “How did he get outside?” Then I realized she hadn’t.

I cut open the hardware cloth (hadn’t made a door last year because they weren’t going anywhere in a hurry), and carefully put him in with her until her wings had a chance to harden up enough that she could fly. She had eclosed recently enough that her wings had attained their shape, but were still much too soft for her to fly; he didn’t waste any time turning up in his courting clothes!

They might just be the world’s most photographed Luna moths, but they both left last night. I released them on the patio because that’s right by the sweetgum tree, which is a host plant for their caterpillars. He flew away first, but considering the incredible distances over which the males are able to detect female pheromones, I don’t think he had any trouble finding her again.

I still haven’t found a spot for the bee hoce (got very distracted by the Lunas), but I did receive the water hyacinth and the frogbit, and got it in the pond. Doesn’t look like much yet, and I haven’t yet made the “corral” for the water hyacinth (piece of old garden hose), but it will grow, and do its job of sucking excess nitrate from the pond, keeping Cletus healthy and happy. I also got mosquito dunks and put one in the pond; it’s a little early yet and not really warm enough, but if anyone will be guilty of providing breeding areas for goddamned mosquitoes in our neighbourhood, it will not be I!

The carrot still hasn’t sprouted in the Black Swallowtail “herb garden”, but I found hundreds of tiny dill seedlings.