Luckily today I am not talking about my children. Today I am talking about a giant black butterfly that flew into the chapel mid-meeting and did not disturb the meeting near as much as you would have thought.
Right now you are thinking about this big black butterfly. You are probably imagining something the size of your hand, right? Well start thinking even bigger. Find the nearest adult male (maybe that’s you, but I think only ladies read this blog) and put his two hands together with fingers extended. That is how big this giant black butterfly was. I had a friend growing up who was afraid of butterflies, as in deathly terrified. I used to think that was funny, but maybe her nightmares were made up of this big black butterfly in which case I think she is totally justified.
During the last speaker of the meeting suddenly a giant black thing flies in. It comes in the back door, and first Aaron thinks it is a bird. Then it flies up towards the front and it becomes evident that it is in fact a giant black butterfly. The speaker does not flinch or even seem to notice, but my kids immediately start shouting “butterfly!! MARIPOSA!!!” A few other people seem to notice, and the chorister suddenly pretends she needs to go to the bathroom and runs out. I should mention for those of you that are familiar with LDS chapels in the US, this one is about a quarter of the size, and was sparsely filled with maybe 50 people. So it’s not like the butterfly couldn’t be seen by everyone. Also all the walls are white, with a white tile floor, and light colored wooden benches. It was a bright day, this butterfly had nowhere to hide.
After a few minute of fluttering around, scaring a few and being not hardly notice by most, mothra landed up behind the speaker. When the meeting was finished Aaron and the kids decided to go looking for it, but much to their disappointment could not find it. On the way out our friend Lorena said “I hate those things. They have so much dust!” So apparently this is not that uncommon?
When we came home Aaron found our giant black butterfly friend on the internet. Apparently it is called a Witch Moth and based on the color was a male, although in some Spanish speaking countries this giant is also called “Mariposa de la Muerte” and “Mariposa Negra”. Because you know, if a giant black moth flies into your house then someone is going to die. Luckily no one has died that we know of. Plus I don’t think Ecuadorians believe that because as I said, only one girl seemed to be concerned by it. Anyway, now I am real sorry I don’t have a picture, because none of the pictures on the internets show how big ours was, although if you want to have nightmares about giant butterflies on your face you can click here. (thanks internets!)
hahaha…that is funny!
NO WAY! I just clicked on the link for that and I have a story. When I was seventeen or eighteen, I was walking into church when I saw a huge (huge!) caterpillar. I took it home and made a habitat for it in an old aquarium. It soon cocooned, shrinking dramatically over its very long incubation period, to the point where I thought it must be dead. Rather repulsed by it — very repulsed, and disturbed — I gave it one more day. That night, a huge zipping noise woke me, and the sound of bat wings filled the room. I was terrified. When I saw the thing beating against my window to escape, I obliged as quickly as I could. It wasn’t a bat — it was THAT MOTH. Moral of the story: do not adopt weird, large caterpillars.