Rising: A New Twist on a Familiar Story

when the Promethea Moths emerge, the world is full of surprises :)

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Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Egg-Caterpillar-Cocoon-Moth. Or its cousin, of course, Egg-Caterpillar-Chrysalis-Butterfly. Such a familiar story for such a marvelous transformation; so fantastic that it has become a treasured life metaphor for many a hopeful heart!

I met this caterpillar one summer day under a wild cherry tree. Isn’t he improbably fabulous?!?

He is happily munching on wild cherry leaves. So, so many wild cherry leaves.

I found him mesmerizing. So pale, the softest mint green and aqua blue, but styling accents of hot red and sunshine yellow like a runway model. So bold, so timelessly classy, who was this sophisticated stranger?

The thing about butterflies and moths is that we’ve simplified their exquisite transformation so that it fits nicely on a coloring book page 🤣 Actually, after emerging from the egg, a caterpillar will molt through several stages of growth called instars, and each instar can be dramatically different from the last!

This particular guy is a Promethea Moth caterpillar. He first emerged as a tiny black-and-yellow-striped caterpillar who liked to stay piled up with a bunch of his siblings. He would have transitioned through a couple more black-yellow-white instars of increasing size and changing patterns, drifting into an increasingly single lifestyle, before settling into this dazzling final act. If I had met him just a few weeks earlier, I wouldn’t even have known he was the same dude. It’s a total makeover.

After plumping up on a steady diet of leaves, he spins a silken cocoon and overwinters in the mixed forest.

Once we knew what to look for, we were tickled to find these cocoons all along the edges of our little woods. They are completely camouflaged within a clever wrap of brown autumn leaf. Except, after all the rest of the autumn leaves have dropped, they remain! Also, an autumn leaf firmly attached to an evergreen bough is likewise suspicious.

Having observed the cocoons, we looked forward to the emergence of the adult Promethea Moths in spring. They are large, velvety, silkworm moths and promised to be super fabulous, if only we could manage to spot them. They are very forest-y, largely nocturnal, so there’s no guarantee of crossing paths…

One June afternoon, I was sitting on our south-facing front porch when I noticed a fluttering of activity. It was a large moth. A large, dark, velvety moth, approaching the front porch with its unique signature of whirling grace.

As I watched, it climbed in a slow spiral above my head, circling into the blue sky above the peak of our charcoal cabin, leaf-drifting down, spiraling up again. And then there was another one. And then another. In a few short moments, the warm afternoon sky was filled with a dozen dark, male Promethea Moths, drifting lazily on swirling warm updrafts.

I watched in silent awe and lost track of time until one, and then another, exited their spiral in a straight-line path for the fir forest. I grabbed my camera and wandered in their wake, wondering what incredible natural instincts called them to gather so elegantly and then disperse so synchronously.

I walked slowly and looked carefully, knowing that they were here somewhere, and also that I could so easily miss them, as their soft colors blended perfectly into the dappled evergreen understory.

But there…just there, nestled in low fir branches, was the velvety red female. And, sure enough, right on cue, a velvety espresso male. And a woodsy meeting for the hope of future generations of velvety Promethea Moths.

The story of transformation from caterpillar, through cocoon or chrysalis, to moth or butterfly, is truly one of the world’s best-known stories. It’s so amazing, so fun, so full of symbolism. And yet, in this moment, here was a piece of the story I had never known, never seen, never expected. The broad strokes were so familiar, and yet the tiny details seemed somehow to open up an entirely new world, to suddenly make this journey personal, instead of generic.

As a family, we strive to keep a gentle footprint on our land, to enjoy it and tend it in such a way as to benefit our natural neighbors as well as ourselves, to the best of our understanding and ability. But sometimes, something you never would have thought of, turns out to be wonderful beyond imagination ~ the pure joy of good luck.

To think that our charcoal-gray cabin-front, unknowingly and unintentionally, just happened to create this momentary sanctuary for male Promethea Moths, embarking on their annual journey for new life, brings me a deep satisfaction as warm as the rising currents that call the velvety wings to gather!

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