diff --git a/lib/static.js b/lib/static.js
index 2c4853eded..7d38646c7f 100644
--- a/lib/static.js
+++ b/lib/static.js
@@ -138,7 +138,12 @@ exports.parseHTML = function(data, context, keepScripts) {
     parsed('script').remove();
   }
 
-  return parsed.root()[0].children;
+  // The `children` array is used by Cheerio internally to group elements that
+  // share the same parents. When nodes created through `parseHTML` are
+  // inserted into previously-existing DOM structures, they will be removed
+  // from the `children` array. The results of `parseHTML` should remain
+  // constant across these operations, so a shallow copy should be returned.
+  return parsed.root()[0].children.slice();
 };
 
 /**
diff --git a/test/api/utils.js b/test/api/utils.js
index 0d43de45bb..2ece35b21e 100644
--- a/test/api/utils.js
+++ b/test/api/utils.js
@@ -157,6 +157,14 @@ describe('cheerio', function() {
       expect(cheerio.parseHTML('<#if><tr><p>This is a test.</p></tr><#/if>') || true).to.be.ok();
     });
 
+    it('(text) : should return an array that is not effected by DOM manipulation methods', function() {
+      var $ = cheerio.load('<div>');
+      var elems = $.parseHTML('<b></b><i></i>');
+
+      $('div').append(elems);
+
+      expect(elems).to.have.length(2);
+    });
   });
 
   describe('.contains', function() {