Have you ever wondered what a caterpillar thinks about as they pupate? 🙂
If you recall back on July 12 I found a Five-spotted Hawk Moth (Manduca quinquemaculatus) caterpillar. So of course I brought them home.
Well I fed it several tomato leaves and they chowed them down. So then they buried themself. They came up at least twice more. Then right before I left for the conference in Austin, they buried themself a final time.
While I was gone, they flung up the dirt on the side of the container. And no more eating. However they were still green when I returned home. Furthermore I now started to wonder if maybe something was wrong with them, a parasite maybe? They were not coming up anymore. Yikes!
From under the jar I could see (July 21) they finally pupated! So they must have just been churning the juices to get to this point. Moreover, I had never been able to observe this before as the caterpillars were always under the dirt not visible.
Next I decided to remove a few of the tomato leaves. The hole was open! Then I put their tomato leaf blanket back over. Sweet dreams. Just imagine what their dreams are like while this is happening. Anyway see you in a few weeks I told them! 🤞🏼
We have been seeing our dear friends early in the morning. 🙂
Ok, you needed cleaned up for the camera dear! Jeanne once again had the amazing friends outside her window. Thanks Jeanne!
Anxiously waiting for pupation to end.
Me too!
Sweet dreams of pupating cats! Look forward to the grand emergence!
So cool that you can see the pupa in the glass jar!
It was so interesting on how long they were green before finally making the brown pupa covering. Yep cool!