Small Eyed Sphinx Moth
समाधिBot: What is it?
Miles: Small eyed sphinx.
समाधिBot: And where did you find it?
India: Back porch? It was just sitting on one of the stairs.
Miles: Ohh! That was a cocoon that I hatched!
India: Wow!
समाधिBot: Where’d you find the —
India: — cocoon?
Miles: I didn’t find the cocoon.
India: You found the egg?
Miles: No.
समाधिBot & India: You found the caterpillar?
Miles: No.
India: Then what —
समाधिBot: — did you find?
Miles: I found a moth, and it laid eggs, and then they hatched into caterpillars, and then they formed cocoons, and then there were moths. I released all of them but this one.
समाधिBot: Crazy… wow… you’re kind of a mother.
समाधिBot: When did you find this moth’s mother?
Miles: Last year.
समाधिBot: Where did you find her?
Miles: I was walking in the woods, and then it fell on my head.
समाधिBot: It fell on your head?!
Miles: Yes.
समाधिBot: This moth’s own mother fell on your head? Wow…
India: I’ve got a question: why does it have a waggly tail?
Miles: That subspecies of sphinx moths usually have curved tails. And its underwings stick out beyond its top wings.
समाधिBot: Do these fly well?
Miles: Yes, almost all sphinx moths are really strong flyers.
समाधिBot: Its body looks so big in comparison to its wings, it seems like it would have a hard time flying.
Miles: Someone found a pink spotted sphinx twenty miles off the coast of Georgia… yes I think it was Georgia… yes. It flew out to sea twenty-five miles.
समाधिBot: Wow, they found it on their boat, or they found it on an island?
Miles: It landed on their boat.
India: You know those brown and pink things? At the side of its wings? What are they?
Miles: That’s the side of its wings.
India: I know, that’s what I’m talking about. What are they?
Miles: The side of its wings! The side of its wings are the side of its wings.
India: Okay… the side of its wings are the side of its wings…
Miles: That red line on it looks almost like a mohawk. See its underwings stick out? That particular species usually does that.
India: Those things… those pink and brown things.
Miles: Those are just pigments in its wings. You’re talking complete nonsense, India.
