Sunday, June 22, 2008

Caterpillar watch!

Well 4 of the caterpillars have formed their chrysalids. The 5th one will probably have its made by end of day today. I have to get the pictures on to the computer. They aren't the greatest, I didn't want to disrupt the caterpillars.

I am completely fascinated by the whole thing though. Lino keeps making fun of me for it. I am just amazed that they knew they had to go to the top of the little cup and hang upside down and curl their little heads up.

The first one to do it seemed to be the leader, got right down to business from the beginning. The next 2 followed pretty quickly. Numbers 4 and 5 really had me worried. They would sort of go to the top and bug the others, then just hang out on the side of the cup. (at one point, I thought #5 wasn't going to make it, he had gone back to the bottom with all the yucky webbing and frass...)

Lino figured #5 is just a late bloomer. By last night 4 had already been hanging upside down for a while and I could see his outer shell (?) starting. By 11 o'clock or so 5 had finally gotten in position--phew. (It reminds me of the movie Multiplicity--copies of a copy....)

The next step will be to somehow transfer them from the cup to the habitat--I should be able to get some better pictures then.

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