The Moonbug is a remarkable insect. Once per decade, in years that end with a zero, the Moonbugs come out to play in the moonlight on the night of the summer solstice. They dance a slow mating dance, in the form of a sarabande, and choose their mates (with due care to find one with compatible qualities). At dawn, the dance ends; the Moonbugs quickly consummate their passions, deposit eggs near a dormant puffberry plant, and die. To avoid messy endings, the Moonbugs generally fly to a convenient compost heap and burrow into it before they expire.
Moonbug eggs lie dormant for nine summer solstices, and hatch into larvae on the tenth. The larval stage lasts only until moonrise, at which point the larvae transform themselves into snazzy and brightly-colored little insects. No doubt the reader would like to know what Moonbugs look like. This is problematic, however, as no two Moonbugs look alike. Some are solid colors; others have dots, or stripes, or plaid.
Moonbugs have no known predators, for two reasons. First, Moonbugs taste nasty to birds and other likely predators. The other reason is that since Moonbugs are only out and about one night every decade, an animal that did develop a taste for Moonbugs would be hungry most of the time.
Clothilde noodged Mr. Smiley. "Have you ever seen the mating dance of a Moonbug?"
Mr. Smiley was midway through a pickle, and his mouth was full. "Mmmmph mmph mmmmmmph", he said, taking great care to avoid choking.
"Well", said Clothilde, with an air of great mystery, "it's a slow dance, in the form of a sarabande. And I do believe that this year ends with a zero, and we have dormant puffberries in our garden, so..."
Mr. Smiley withdrew his "Things to Do" book from his pocket. There was one page per day, and at the top of each page, he had made the following entries:
(1) Cafe Smiley
(2) Smiley's Cheese Shoppe
Turning to the page for the day of the summer solstice, he wrote:
(3) Watch Moonbugs play
