A rare winter visitor

SUTHERLANDS RIVER - Last December, Brooke McVicar brought a cocoon to Richard Skidmore's Grade 3 classroom at Frank H. MacDonald Elementary School in Sutherlands River.
"My great uncle Carl from Avondale found it and sent it home to me so that I could take it to school for the whole class to see," she said.
"On Monday, there was a miracle when it hatched."
For months, the students kept the cocoon in a jar in the classroom, carefully monitoring its progress.
They were in the middle of a reading lesson when one of the students noticed something was beginning to emerge from the cocoon.
Skidmore realized any chance of finishing that lesson was gone, at least for the time being, as the children's attention was now on the jar.
"Everybody was running over to watch it; everybody was just so excited," Brooke said.
Within moments, a cecropia moth had emerged from the cocoon, a female moth they later learned. One of the largest moths in North America, the cecropia moth usually emerges from its cocoon between May and July. Also known as the silkworm moth, it is commonly found from the Maritimes to Alberta and in the eastern United States.
"We never expected it would come out of its cocoon this early," said Brooke.
So what will they do with the newest member of the class?
Skidmore says, admittedly, she won't be around much longer.
"Cecropia moths live for a very short time, on average about two weeks," he said.

Cecropia Moth
Order - Lepidoptera
Family - Saturniidae
Adult wing span - 150 mm
Mature larval length - 85 to 90 mm

Found from the Maritimes to Alberta and in the eastern United States, the cecropia moth usually emerges from its cocoon between May and July. The cecropia moth, also known as the silkworm moth, is nocturnal and spends most of its adult life searching for a mate. The cecropia moth is one of the largest moths in North America.