Atlas moth

The dark is my delight.

- As told to Simon Barnes

You might think that's a waste of my beauty, but you'd be wrong. My true beauty is perceived not by the eye but through the feathery antennae of my future husband. My wingspan is huge - 25cm — but that will mean little to him. I can fly, all right: but mostly I fly on the wings of deception.

Monday

Today I ate nothing. Yesterday I ate nothing, and tomorrow I will eat nothing. I will never eat. The very idea is absurd: and besides, I haven't got the equipment. I did all the eating I needed in my caterpillar days: I ate hugely - especially the leaves of the cinnamon tree and the guava. But when I became a pupa, I set aside childish things.

Tuesday