by April Trice

Created on: September 19, 2009   Last Updated: September 20, 2009

My daughter likes bugs. Me? Not so much. So when she presented me with a piece of ratty yarn earlier this summer, I nearly came undone when the thing came alive, reared back and tried to box me. After a closer (but not too close) inspection, we realized it was a caterpillar. I'd never seen a caterpillar like this in my entire life! My daughter excitedly went to fetch her bug house and I sat down to do some research on our bizarre discovery.

Apparently the most visually stunning caterpillars produce the most common and non-descriptive butterflies or moths. When I learned this, I was kind of disappointed. I wanted to see a big gorgeous butterfly! Not a common moth! The more I read, the more disappointed I became. More than disappointed, actually. I got a tad angry. Turns out we didn't have a butterfly at all; instead, we were giving sanctuary to a Vapourer Moth. Just the name of it sent shudders down my spine. It sounded like something out of an old Hitchcock film. Vapourer Moth Destroys the Planet! I did my best to maintain a cool facade. Didn't want my three year old thinking her Mom was a Wimpasaurus-Rex.

The Vapourer Moth, named for its frantic fluttering, is seemingly screwed from birth. They single-handedly decimate entire orchards and trees. The males live less than a year and their main goal is to find a female, impregnate her, then go off somewhere to die. The females are born flightless. They can't even crawl. They come out of their cocoon and just sit there, emitting some type of funky pheromone until a guy comes around and does his thing. Within minutes, the female lays her eggs in the open cocoon that she had just come from. Then she too dies. When the babies are born, they crawl off and begin their short life of destruction.

So where's the message here?! Don't all living things have a distinct purpose in the grand scheme of things? A part to play in our planets' synthesis? How exactly does the Vapourer Moth contribute? They are seemingly a wasted life. I came across a study that had this to say about the female's "doomed" existence:

"This custom of fastening the eggs to the web in a constant method, and by the immutable law of nature, is so peculiar to this species of insects, that I have never observed it in any other kind whatsoever. This female, like a most prudent housewife, never leaves her habitation, but is always fixing her eggs to the surface of the web out of which she has herself crept, thus affording a beautiful instance of industrious housewifery." (Source)

Housewifery. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. The domestic role of a woman isn't viewed as successful. People even go as far as to say you're lazy and self-indulgent with no personal ambition. Success is being in the limelight. Success is being showered with accolades. You're not successful until you unfurl those breathtaking wings and everyone oohhhs and ahhhhhs.

But maybe that's not the case at all. If that Mama Vapourer Moth tried to fly like her flashy counterpart, it would be her downfall. Literally. Perhaps she's perfectly content in knowing that her purpose is to give birth and move on.

Maybe that's the lesson. Beware of chasing impossible dreams and turning a blind eye to the less-than-glamorous, yet natural and innate, talents we possess.

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