One evening I noticed a Luna Moth on the screen outside of our screened in porch. I knew what it was because I had seen them before. Of course, I excitedly told other members of my family but they weren't nearly as excited as I was. I just kept watching and observing when I just couldn't figure out why she wouldn't fly away or react to much of any prodding or such. I told my husband that I thought she might be sick from a pesticide or something. Again, I was obviously the only on completely enthralled in all this.

Well, all of a sudden I noticed that she was sort of like shivering. Just rapidly shaking back and forth. I just could not figure out what was going on.  Well, by that time it had gotten dark and I had to head in for a flashlight. When I went in, I called a friend whom I thought may be as excited as I was. She was pretty much. I went back outside and shined a light on the moth.

It was just then that I realized eggs were being laid. "Wow! I immediately decided to name her Lona the Luna Moth. I quickly went inside to surf the net and learn as much as I could about the Luna Moth and how the eggs develop , etc. The female dies about 24 hours after laying eggs and the male dies after mating. Another ''Wow"! As well as an "Aw"!

I learned that in 10-12 days the eggs will hatch and many, many little green baby caterpillars will be born. Oh, another thing that I learned was that they could be raised successfully in captivity and released. Hmmm, you know what I was thinking. Well, the next morning I did scrape some eggs into a container and we decided that since we were doing biology this year we could use this as a lab. So the documenting began.

Lona finished laying the eggs at 9:30 pm 8/18 2008, so I thought.

Lona

Some of Lona's Eggs

Lona was found in the morning @ 9:00 am on 8/19/2008 in a different spot on the screen laying another cluster. Five clusters of eggs were visible and she barely moved at the last cluster. I petted her but she barely responded.

Lona's eggs the next day 

 Lona laying more eggs!

At 11:00 am on 8/19/2008,  I removed about 15-20 eggs and put them into a container. Lona looks near dead, stuck in the spot where she was laying the last cluster.

Notice: Lona has some marking abnormalities on her right wing.

  At 4:00 pm the boys and I viewed the eggs under the microscope. They looked like small coconuts. They had a lot of what appeared to be hair on them.

At 4:30 pm when I went to check on the eggs I noticed a lizard munching down some of the eggs. Aw! I scared him away. No one was getting our eggs, I tell ya! Again, Lona has not moved from her last spot. I took pictures.

At 10:10 pm I went out to see Lona and she was gone. No where to be found. No where!

On 8/23/2008 @ 2:40 pm no noticable changes in the eggs. In our container or on the screen.

On 8/26/2008 @ 8:20 am no changes in the eggs. No movement.