Once upon a time there was a sweet little maiden. Whoever laid eyes upon her could not help but love her. But it was her grandmother who loved her most. She could never give the child enough. One time she made her a present, a small, red velvet cap, and since it was so becoming and the maiden insisted on always wearing it, she was called Little Red Cap.

One day her mother said to her, "Come, Little Red Cap, take this piece of cake and bottle of wine and bring them to your grandmother. She's sick and weak, and this will strengthen her. Get an early start, before it becomes hot, and when you're out in the woods, be nice and good and don't stray from the path, otherwise you'll fall and break the glass, and your grandmother will get nothing. And when you enter her room, don't forget to say good morning, and don't go peeping in all the corners."

"I'll do just as you say," Little Red Cap promised her mother.

Well, the grandmother lived out in the forest, half an hour from the village, and as soon as Little Red Cap entered the forest, she encountered the wolf. However, Little Red Cap did not know what a wicked sort of an animal he was and was not afraid of him.

"Good day, Little Red Cap," he said.

"Thank you kindly, wolf."

"Where are you going so early, Little Red Cap?"

"To Grandmother's."

"What are you carrying under your apron?"

"Cake and wine. My grandmother's sick and weak, and yesterday we baked this so it will help her get well."

"Where does your grandmother live, Little Red Cap?"

"Another quarter of an hour from here in the forest. Her house is under the three big oak trees. You can tell it by the hazel bushes," said Little Red Cap.


The wolf thought to himself, This tender young thing is a juicy morsel. She'll taste even better than the old woman. You've got to be real crafty if you want to catch them both. Then he walked next to Little Red Cap, and after a while he said, "Little Red Cap, just look at the beautiful flowers that are growing all around you! Why don't you look around? I believe you haven't even noticed how lovely the birds are singing. You march along as if you were going straight to school, and yet it's so delightful out here in the woods!"


Little Red Cap looked around and saw how the rays of the sun were dancing through the trees back and forth and how the woods were full of beautiful flowers. So she thought to herself, If I bring Grandmother a bunch of fresh flowers, she'd certainly like that. It's still early, and I'll arrive on time. So she ran off the path and plunged into the woods to look for flowers. And each time she plucked one, she thought she saw another even prettier flower and ran after it, going deeper and deeper into the forest. But the wolf went straight to the grandmother's house and knocked at the door.

"Who's out there?"

"Little Red Cap. I've brought you some cake and wine. Open up."

"Just lift the latch," the grandmother called. "I'm too weak and can't get up."

The wolf lifted the latch, and the door sprang open. Then he went straight to the grandmother's bed without saying a word and gobbled her up. Next he put on her clothes and her nightcap, lay down in her bed, and drew the curtains.

Meanwhile, Little Red Cap had been running around and looking for flowers, and only when she had as many as she could carry did she remember her grandmother and continue on the way to her house again. She was puzzled when she found the door open, and as she entered the room, it seemed so strange inside that she thought, Oh, my God, how frightened I feel today, and usually I like to be at Grandmother's. She called out, "Good morning!"

But she received no answer. Next she went to the bed and drew back the curtains.



There lay her grandmother with her cap pulled down over her face giving her a strange appearance. "Oh, Grandmother, what big ears you have!"

"The better to hear you with."

"Oh, Grandmother, what big hands you have!"

"The better to grab you with."

Grandmother, what a terribly big mouth you have!"

"The better to eat you with!"

No sooner did the wolf say that than he jumped out of bed and gobbled up poor Little Red Cap. After the wolf had satisfied his desires, he lay down in bed again, fell asleep, and began to snore very loudly.

The huntsman happened to be passing by the house and thought to himself: "The way the old woman's snoring, you'd better see if anything's wrong." He went into the room, and when he came to the bed, he saw the wolf lying in it.

"So I've found you at last, you old sinner," said the huntsman. "I've been looking for you for a long time."

He took aim with his gun, and then it occurred to him that the

The Death's head hawk moth is so called because of the skull-like pattern on the thorax. As far as the latin name is concerned, according to Pinhey (1975): "Atropos, one of the Fates, was a daughter of Nox and Erebus and was illustrated... with veiled face and a pair of scissors to cut the thread of life. This is the thoracic pattern of a mask with scissors below it. A sinister but undeserved portrait." On 26 th September 2007,on a butterflying visit to Karuvarakundu, (Malappuram district in Kerala, at about 500_750 ft altitude )stumbled upon a Moth larva of about length of 90 to100 mm and which seemed matured and fully developed, I decided to bring it home knowing that the larva plant Dhobi’s kerchief (Mussaenda glabrata) on which It was sighted is very common. I kept the larva in a paper box for a day and fed it with leaves of the larva plant It devoured about 4 to 5 leaves per day and was almost engaged in feeding every time I observed without much movements On the second day kept the box open and supplied it with a small twig of dhobi’s kerchjef Full of leaves, so that the most natural environment is provided with The larva didn’t stray out from the open box kept on the window sill Leaves disappeared one after another very quickly The larva devoured the leaves from the tip down to the stem nothing remained of the leaves On 30th Sunday morning found the larva resting on the inside corners of the box at around 6:30am,it had developed a light brown coloration along the top of the body And after 15 minutes or so, when looked for the larva it was not there anywhere near the box We were surprised by the missing larva and started searching for it and after half an hour found it on the floor, which was moving very quickly searching for something, whenever it met with a wall it changed its course never climbing upwards, it was so impatient, no provocations prevented it from moving And I concluded the time has arrived for pupation, I had no idea of what would be the environment required, heard that some moth larvae pupate on soil I kept a thick paper sheet along its path to retrieve it from the floor, alarmingly it tried to lift the sheet and was trying to hide under it, some how I managed to capture it and put it again in the box, this time it was not calm, it swirled and wriggled violently Without much thought I spread some wet river sand which was the only soil available on a heavily raining morning, on the bottom of the box and closed the box and left for its fate. My anxiety and curiosity prompted me to open the box again within 10 minutes To my surprise the larva was digging into the sand. Now, my hopes brightened and I put some more sand into the box without hurting the larva and the larva completely submerged into the wet sand and the total time it took was about 15 minutes Sound of cracking sand was heard as it moved underneath the sand layer At around 12 noon I looked again and the larva was out of the soil ,soil particles clinging all over its body, thinking it may need further feeding I put some fresh leaves into the box And this time too it moved violently, and I shut the box again At around 1:00 pm I opened the box again and found two holes on the soil and it went deep into the sand again, the cracking of sound was heard throughout the day and night I kept the box open again And the next evening 1st October, at around 9 pm noticed some of the sand over its body was removed, it might have wriggled heavily to achieve this, the head was still under the sand Now the sand cracking sound reduced On 2nd October 10 pm observed the sand over its head is also wriggled away The next day nothing happened, but observed that the body of the larva was shrinking considerably On 3rd I left home in the early morning and was not able to look at it till I came back at 9 pm,and the larva had been moulted When I tried to remove the shredded skin to get a better picture on 4th October afternoon It wriggled violently and left it undisturbed Assuming it is time for emergence shifted the pupa on to a tray spread with sand to get better view of the pupa on 18th October After a long wait of 24 days On 22nd it emerged at around 8 PM In my absence my family managed and celebrated the occasion and the first picture of The moth was taken by my elder son Gautam The whole family was eagerly waiting for something very cute and colourful From such a beauty of a caterpillar and was a little bit surprised seeing this weird moth After a long photosession I left the moth in its box to have another photosession in the daylight On 23rd early morning around 5 AM it was fully prepared to fly away Fluttering the wings with high frequency and was restless And heard some noise like that made by some beetles and left it without disturbing at 7 AM I took it out and had some shots but was little bit surprised seeing it very cool and in some meditative mood I left the moth for its fate at a safe place and it was there for more than hou