Mallows, Purple Loosestrife, vibrant blue sky afloat with white clouds reflecting on the nearly still water below, the distant treeline a backdrop of the richest blue-green this season has to offer.
It’s high summer.
This season has snuck up on me and it’s been a few weeks since Janet and I have walked this path that we’ve trod together 150 or more times now. We have a walking pattern we easily step into at the start of our walks. I walk on the left and Janet on the right. I always turn my face to the right as we converse, hoping Janet can see enough to accurately lipread what I’m saying.
Today we have somehow alighted on the subject of certain romance writers and what the level of amorous goings-on each includes in their writing. Books make their way into nearly all of our conversations, but this angle is not something we often discuss.
That’s when I abruptly stop our conversation and stare at the edge of the path. My peripheral vision has picked up the shape and color of a tulip tree leaf: a tulip tree leaf that’s ready for fall.
Janet is used to this behavior, my rude halting mid-sentence to focus on some supposed nature discovery behind her. My brain has almost instantly decided it must not be a tulip tree leaf and begs my eyes to look closer.
Together we creep silently to the edge of the path. This “tulip leaf” is in fact two yellow moths locked in an erotic embrace. The humor of the moment doesn’t escape me.
We spare these creatures no privacy.
Both of us have our phones at the ready and collect as many photographs as we can. Carefully, with a wide berth, I tiptoe across poison ivy riddled ground to inspect the other side of the moths which appears much darker with more brown mottling.
I can’t resist a quick Google to ease my curiosity: Imperial Moths.
From what I learn, these moths have just recently clawed their way to the soil’s surface and emerged, possibly this very morning, as adult moths. They will give all their attention to mating and laying eggs before dying in a few day’s time without having ever eaten.
I can see the enormous size difference between the female and the male. The female is formed for laying hundreds of eggs and keeping up her stamina until her life’s work is finished. The male, much smaller, needs only to use his energy to move his feather-like antennae enough to catch a whiff of the female’s pheromones and successfully mate.
Hundreds of eggs will be laid in the next few days on nearby leaves of maple, oak, sweetgum, and even pine. In two weeks caterpillars will hatch, ravenous to feed and pass between multiple instar phases before burrowing into the ground to wait for next summer to arrive.
In our area, Imperial moths emerge at high summer. I’m mindful that the face of Eagle Creek changes bi-weekly, nay weekly, hourly. What were the chances I’d be here on this path, in sight of the moths, today?
I gingergly step back to the gravel path, grinning like a child who’s just found a shiny rock. It’s funny how the treasure appears in a different place each time I come to look. But I love that. I love the mystery, the unknown, the possibility of discovery. Life is more exciting when every walk reveals treasure.
![Green plants and grass in background with yellow tulip poplar leaf in one image and mating Imperial moths in the other](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_720,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb84d4d1b-e077-4139-bdea-1b7c12d3fc7f_1940x1838.png)
![Green plants and grass in background with yellow tulip poplar leaf in one image and mating Imperial moths in the other](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_720,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F998617cf-156d-4a44-8151-a1bec615f8d0_1938x1800.png)
What an interesting sighting! I have never had this experience, so thank you for sharing. I'm wondering what the purpose is of an adult moth is if it doesn't eat, maybe pollination & procreation? Fascinating & beautiful!