August 8: Moth wings
Aug. 8th, 2010 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neverspentI took the dogs for their walk in the afternoon. There was thunder rolling above, and I wanted to get out and back before it rained, if it rained. The air was oppressively still. At the top of a hill, in the dust at the edge of the road, we came across the pieces of a luna moth.
There was no body, but the four wings were intact, scattered a few inches away from each other. How did that happen? Where did the moth's body disappear to, without the wings?
A few minutes later, we passed a dark spot in the middle of the road. It was moving, almost writhing, and on closer inspection I could see that it was a mass of red ants swarming over some small dead or doomed bug--a grass spider. They would soon have it dismantled and eaten or carried away, I suspected. And that might be what happened to the moth. I imagined her falling to the road, failing with old age, and the ants smelling death and coming to speed her way, or recycle her body. But they had no use for the wings, and they only take what they need. The wings remained, and every once in awhile a pickup truck passed by in a puff of air which caused the dust to swirl and the wings to flutter an inch or so along the way.
There was no body, but the four wings were intact, scattered a few inches away from each other. How did that happen? Where did the moth's body disappear to, without the wings?
A few minutes later, we passed a dark spot in the middle of the road. It was moving, almost writhing, and on closer inspection I could see that it was a mass of red ants swarming over some small dead or doomed bug--a grass spider. They would soon have it dismantled and eaten or carried away, I suspected. And that might be what happened to the moth. I imagined her falling to the road, failing with old age, and the ants smelling death and coming to speed her way, or recycle her body. But they had no use for the wings, and they only take what they need. The wings remained, and every once in awhile a pickup truck passed by in a puff of air which caused the dust to swirl and the wings to flutter an inch or so along the way.