An unexpected tenant—after at least three years, a cocoon resting on my mother’s cabinet eclosed this evening to reveal a handsome male Cecropia moth:
He flapped around my kitchen for a while before I managed to get him outside. Talk about a late bloomer!
How long are they normally in the cocoon for?
A few weeks, if born in the spring, but late-summer broods stay in their cocoon all winter.
There’s a lot of variation in moth metamorphosis. Some will simply not spin silk cocoons at all and will just pupate in the nude, which is sort of awkward, and once in a while we’ll have one emerge a year later than expected. This guy takes the cake, though—he was actually born in 2017, meaning that he’s spent FOUR WINTERS in his cocoon! Talk about procrastination…
Big man. Big big very large humongous man.
Very beautiful… very powerful.
He’s glorious and goregous, I love him! It’s fascinating he stayed in his cocoon so long. I love moths.
