Hotel guests were relaxing in the TV lounge when a large colourful moth flew in through the open window and began circling around the ceiling.

“Oh look,” someone cried, “a butterfly.” Admiring glances were cast upward.

Then seconds later, “That’s not a butterfly—it’s only a moth!”

Instantly the atmosphere in the room changed as smiles turned to frowns and rolled up newspapers began flailing the air wildly intent on swatting the intruder.

Dazzled by the lights and confused by all the fuss, the moth—a beautiful garden tiger—suddenly accelerated, shot across the lounge to where I was sitting and alighted halfway up the wall, below where sat an elderly couple. The lady looked up apprehensively as the moth landed above her head.

“Kill it Fred,” she hissed. Fred, well used to speeding to his wife’s assistance in times of dire emergency such as this, leapt into action.

As the moth lost its footing and slid inevitably down the shiny wallpaper, Fred with perfect timing rammed the back of his chair against the wall and with a sickening crunch, trapping the hapless moth.

I found myself saying, “That was a perfectly harmless moth, you know.”

“Maybe — but it was only a moth,” Fred said defensively. Then glancing down he caught sight of a book I was reading called Adventures With Moths!

That was altogether too much for Fred and, mumbling something about having had enough of TV anyway, the couple shuffled from the room.

I picked up the battered moth, wrapped it in tissue and placed it in my pocket thinking the moth deserved a better fate than suffering the indignity of being hoovered up by the cleaners next day.

The following morning, I unwrapped the tissue and there to my amazement gleamed a dozen tiny eggs that had defied the moth’s injuries before finally succumbing to its injuries.

I took the tiny eggs home and placed them in a breeding cage. I fed the caterpillars that emerged with dandelion leaves and successfully reared the brood to adult stage.

Prior to releasing the moths in the garden the following spring, I obtained another two and the large number of ‘wooly bear’ caterpillars which resulted from those pairings were again reared through to maturity and released.

News Shopper: A garden tiger moth Image: WikipediaA garden tiger moth Image: Wikipedia (Image: Wikipedia)

I derived great pleasure and satisfaction from the episode but couldn’t help thinking that Fred, had he known, would not have been at all amused with my efforts on behalf of what was after all, as he would no doubt have said, “only a moth”.

Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of the moth. Instead, here’s a snapshot of flowers in bloom to remind us of spring to come.