A few weeks ago in the Price Chopper parking lot, I watched as a couple of people stared down at the grass median.

As I got closer to them, I saw what had captured their interest -- a luna moth, at the end of its life cycle. It's easy to understand why these beautiful moths attract so much attention: they are one of the largest of moths with a wingspan up to 4½ to 5 inches.

Luna moths are a greenish-yellow color with two eye-like circles near the bottom of their wings. As its name suggests, the luna moth is a creature of the night, more at home in lunar (moon) light than in the brightness of daytime.

Because of its nocturnal habits, few people actually see a luna moth, and because of its short seven-day, on average, lifespan as an adult, it is here and gone before you know it.

The luna is a typical moth in that it goes through a few major life cycle changes, from egg to cocoon, pupa and adult. This sequence begins after a female luna is fertilized by a male and lays four to six brown cylindrical eggs on plant leaves; in the North Country, white birch is the preferred leaf.

After hatching and working its way out of the egg, the young luna, now in its caterpillar stage, moves about eating leaves. As it grows, it sheds layers of skin; this molting is also called "Instar."

As winter approaches, those caterpillars that survive build paper-thin protective shelters from leaves and go into the pupa or resting stage. Finally, in mid to late spring, these pupae emerge transformed into adult luna moths. They dry their wings and take off.

This beautiful creature of the night, enjoyed serendipitously by those Price Chopper patrons, didn't have long to live, but certainly gave everyone who saw it the pleasure of its short-lived freedom.