luna moth

we discovered another catepillar the other week.  it was very large and light greeen in color.  i was excited because we’ve only found monarch butterfly catepillar’s in the past and this one was different.  we grabbed it and gave it a nice little home in an old spaghetti sauce jar, added some leaves and sticks and some holes in the top.  once we put it in it’s new home, it made a cocoon almost immediately.  after two weeks, i opened the jar and noticed a noise coming from the container.  it was shaking and twisting.  we got excited and thought it was ready to come out.  we’ve never been able to see and butterfly come out and thought this was it.  we gave it a little help and cut it out of the cocoon.  it was a dark brown color and it was twisting around constantly.  by then we thought we ruined it.  so, we put it back in the jar and let it be.  after a week or so, we checked occasionally and then it stopped moving.  i was going to throw it away and when i picked up the jar i noticed there was a moth in there.  some how even though we tampered with it, he managed to transform into a moth.  it is a luna moth.  it’s very rare based on the information i found on the web.  it’s very large and light green with a few markings.  i love these kinds of experiences.  i’m learning right along with the kids and actually i get more excited about it than they do.