All in the eye of the beholder Avala. I for one think its a magnificent find.
Brings back very fond memories from 10 years or so ago when one bright and sunny July day, me and the kids found about 50 of these fellows crawling about looking for proper natural cover in our woodshed (where they had clearly been laid the year before).
They were so awe struck by the size and weird-wonder of them, and as there was nothing but gravel for yards around, I decided we would do a rescue act. Out from our stores was dug an old glass fish tank and we proceeded to build them cover of logs and stems etc inside which they soon populated. A bit of research and we knew what these Elephant Hawk Moth larva needed for sustenance - lots and lots of Fuchsia flowers, which we proceeded to haunt the district for weeks to find clippings of.
Boy could they eat! The kids were mesmerized. And then one day we came down stairs and the whole tank was filled to the brim with nothing but a dense, silk like web, a ghostly bedroom into which all the larva had disappeared. And then nothing for weeks - the kids would just sit and stare into the fuzzy blank of the tank saying 'its better than any television 'cause its real'. I was quietly concerned their high expectation was going to be thwarted because being out of their natural environment, I wasn't exactly confident they would pull through. But then one magic day, the miracle of nature began; the long slow transmogrification was complete and the first of the most beautiful creatures we had ever seen up close appeared atop an outcropping stick, stretching its wings and drying off from the exertion of undertaking total structural change.
We wondered in awe at how it had seemingly metamorphosed the Fuchsia flowers into these effervescent pinks and magenta reds. And to be able to see all the complex features and tiny details up close was better than any masterpiece by man in an art gallery.
Then one by one over the course of a week about 30 more appeared, each taken gently in hand by the children and held at an open window - perhaps for as much as 20 minutes of total focused patience - before with a flurry and beating of wings they took off into the countryside beyond.
It was utter magic. The kids have never ever forgotten it to this day. Nor the metaphor of transformation and of the realisation that magic lurks below the surface of all nature and that which appears malformed and unsettling can transform itself into an absolute beauty.
