Witch moth or money bat?
This is Ascalapha odorata, known in The Bahamas as a bat moth or a money bat. A. odorata is the largest moth in the western hemisphere and it can be found across Mesoamerica, the Caribbean and The Bahamas. Sometimes, they show up in the extreme southern US, though I have never seen one here.
A. odorata has a wingspan between six and seven inches, so they are hard to miss. Just about everywhere they're found, they're commonly called such names as witch moth, black witch, death moth and death butterfly. They are considered to be a harbinger of doom and in rural Mexico, getting one in the house portends the death of a member of that household. Pretty macabre stuff to attribute to a harmless moth.
Well, in The Bahamas they are everywhere. Inside the house, outside the house, day and night, they are as a great deal a part of life on the Out Islands as land crabs and mosquitoes. In what I take to be a profound commentary at the very essence of Bahamian tradition, those moths are dealt with as a welcome guest.
Bahamians call them money bats and having one fly into the house is a very good thing. In fact, having one come in means that you will come into an unexpected windfall. Having one hit you on the face as it comes in is even more lucky. In the last week, I got hit in the face by enough money bats that I ought to be rolling in the dough in a matter of days.
For a collection of human beings who have been and stay so absolutely shafted by the world events that swirl round them, I think it speaks volumes about their countrywide character. I went to a self development seminar a while ago and the speaker stored urging us to "pick what is so." It failed to make an entire lot of feel to me at the time, however in the years seeing that I've come to see it as a truely extraordinary aspect to practice. If I can not alternate something approximately my life or the function I play in it, why now not deal with that something as though I chose it in preference to moaning and wailing about having it compelled upon me? If I'm surrounded through black moths with six inch wingspans and I can not do a thing approximately it, why not welcome them in? Why no longer indeed?
I may be absolutely out to lunch with this, just another silly American who's hopelessly out of his element there. And so what if I am? It's a tremendous honor to be granted a peek into the culture and lives of a set of folks that are placed towards me than Atlanta is, but who exist in a world I can barely believe.
