Spike

It was only our second visit to Pink Lake this summer, heading into this last week of August. Pretty disgraceful, to be sure, considering that bug hunting still stands as one of E's all time favourite pastimes. The first time we went she spent a great deal of time moaning about being forced to walk so much. And she started down that road again today...until the bug-stravaganza kicked into high gear!

Dad suggested that we have a contest to see who could catch the coolest bug. Mom got out to an early lead with a bright red dragonfly and a freakishly interesting specimen that appeared to be a green frog from the waist up and a brown toad from the waist down. Cross-breeding, cross-contamination or cross-dressing, it's hard to say for sure.

Dad found a tadpole and a whole family of fish.

But then E threw down the gauntlet with this fella:

One family we passed on our trek suggested that he looked strikingly similar to Heimlich from A Bug's Life. We concurred:

Perhaps against anyone's better judgement, we decided to take him home. And a quick google search produced all of the information we needed to adopt him as our new project pet.

His name is Spike. He is a Cercropia moth, a giant silk moth related to the gypsy moth. They are the largest moth in North America and have a life cycle as caterpillars of 60 days, going from black to orange to green. As he is already green and quite shamefully obese, I estimate another 2 weeks or so of caterpillar-dom, followed by a short and sweet 4-5 day life cycle as a rather striking moth:

Welcome to the family, Spike. For the next few weeks, at least.