Our New Neighbors

Hercules Moth

In the past couple nights we have had some new visitors to the center.  One was the Hercules Moth.  He at first seemed quite disoriented and not well by his erratic flying and haphazard collisions with us and walls but he soon settled.  He appeared at about 1 in the morning and a friend and I watched him all night as we were up anyway working and enjoying the rainforest at all hours of the night.  The rest of our group was so pleased when he was still there in the morning perched on a beam above the long tables we eat at.  This magnificent creature stayed around for another half a day before moving on and fluttering off into the forest. Our other visitor was much smaller, and much fluffier.  We believe that our friend was a Mellomie.  It was a small mouse-like creature that was very social.  He had a particular attraction to shoes but mostly my exposed ankles.  He climbed up my shoe and nestled himself as far down in my shoe as he could for warmth and within minutes had fallen asleep.  We let him sleep there while he was thoroughly photographed before being moved back into the grasses to find a more suitable place to spend the night than my ankle.