It’s Not Easy to Become a Butterfly!
Michael spent most of the morning shedding his skin – and looking terrible. Even though I am getting used to the times when a caterpillar is incredibly still – sometimes laying on its side – I keep worrying that maybe it is dying.
At lunchtime I noticed that he was wiggling, so I knew he would soon be shedding his skin. However, it is a fairly long process, and I didn’t have time to watch.
I checked every half hour, and did get to seem him just after it happened – notice the pile of black skin in back of him. But also notice that he has not yet shed his face mask! I read about that the other day, and was pleased to see that.
After his face mask was removed, Michael turned around to eat his skin. Research tells me it’s a bit like us taking vitamins.
Notice Max (bottom left) and Molly (top right) are also in this picture.
After that long process, Michael was hungry.
Three day old Munch was busy munching today.
Two of the one-day old M & M’s spent the day eating, but I cannot locate the other two. I keep wondering what may have happened to them. Did they fall in the water, did a bigger one eat them? I guess I won’t conduct a funeral, but it made me think about how many times that happens in nature and we never give it a thought.
Notice the difference in size between Michael and one of the day-old caterpillars.
Interesting
A quick, noisy thunderstorm went through about 1 PM. I wondered how caterpillars survive violent rain storms. When I went upstairs to check on the storm, I noticed that each caterpillar kept its body very rigid while the thunder rumbled. As I watched, the storm quieted and the sun came out – and they went back to eating.
At suppertime our son, Jere, stopped by to borrow something, and had three-year-old Jared along. While we were looking at the caterpillars, two of them began bumping their heads on a leaf! I wondered if we were too loud. About the time they stopped, Cerwin accidentally bumped the table where I had the aquarium – and they began bumping their heads again.
Does anyone know if that means anything. Is it their way of being aggressive?
5 Responses to Friday August 17, 2007