Ash Moths
"For your daughter, sir, I procured the most wonderful dress. Done up in the latest salon styles, and created from Ash Moth silk. Nothing else will ever feel as soft as this, sir. She's going to love it. Not to mention, it's got quite the protective quality to it!"
Despite their name, Ash Moths are not native to the Ashplains, but are instead a species found across the Continent notable for both their size and their lifecycle.
The moths frequent warmer climates, though they have no trouble living or thriving in far colder climes, and the amount of silk they produce can be directly correlated to the temperature of their surroundings throughout their lifespan. Most attempts to farm the Ash Moth have been done in the South Eastern jungles, though the truly successful attempts have taken place in more temperate grounds.
Basic Information
Biological Cycle
The Ash Moth, like others of its ilk, starts its life as a pupa hatched from a silk-wrapped sachet of eggs. An individual Ash Moth pupa can grow up to eight inches in length, and live in its pupa form for an indefinite period of time, as long as it has moisture and plant life to feed on. They also, as long as they have the resources to feed and water themselves, the Ash Moths have a form of biological immortality.
The next stage of its life cycle may never occur if the requirements for the transition are never met. As previously mentioned, the greater the heat that the moth exists within before its metamorphosis, the greater amount of silk that it will produce when it builds its cocoon. As you may have assumed at the time, incredible heat is also required to catalyze the Ash Moth pupa's metamorphosis. In the wild, such a fire is often caused by lightning or the simple spread of a forest fire. Sometimes, to the north, the lava flows of the Ashplains can attract a flight of these moths, and the pupa will begin to spin itself a cocoon of silk that can resist astronomical temperatures. As the temperature around the cocoon rises, the amount of silk spun increases exponentially, and the now mid-metamorphosis moth begins to grow larger.
When the heat has subsided, the fully grown moth shall emerge from the cocoon, often varying a great deal in size.
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