Caterpillar turned brown?

Wow they finished those leaves in the container by early morning - looked tired and very hungry.



Retrieved 3 more from the shrub and into the container. Heavy muchers and shitters *LOL*.



That's my finger to show how fat, juicy and big these creatures. They're glorious feast for birds.















This caterpillar turned brown and we saw it trying to weave a cocoon, maybe. Did you notice that it has 2 spots of startling colours disguised as eyes? Green ones has pretty 'false eyes', not the brown though. That would be its' head, you could tell while it devours the leaves. The tiny elongated orange is the tail-end. Glitters of shiny white dots at the side of its body.


Do caterpillars sleep? They're busy eating to sleep, growing and molting (process of shedding skins to allow them to grow bigger) but I saw them taking naps like 15 - 30 minutes. All motionless together (had me almost thinking that they died) then starts eating again. When they eat, you can hear "crunch, crunch, crunch". A caterpillar molts 5 times then its skin transformed into a chrysalis; a moth or butterful will emerge from the chrysalis.






















Did you know Butterflies dances in the air in courtship? Like humans, it is to discover the suitability of the potential mate. Part of this process to know if the female butterfly's eggs already fertilised then the female will release a pheromone to discourage the male butterfly. The female butterfly uses its legs to detect suitability of leafy plants for her babies to feed on. Usually eggs are laid on the foodplant, some lay nearby. It takes about 7 to 20 days for eggs to hatch, depending on the type. Young larvae will eat up its eggshell.



There are 4 stages in a butterfly's life. To watch slideshows of how caterpillar pupate? click here. It takes some time to load. How long does a caterpillar pupate? A few hours.



The final metamorphosis after 2 weeks from when the caterpillar transformed into a pupa. The pupa is camourflaged from predators. When the pupa has grown into a butterfly, it will secrete liquid to soften the shell. Its body will expand and crack the shell. Within the hour, the butterfly will pump air into its body, blood begins to circulate and ready to fly away. Anotomy of an adult butterly, click here.


How fast can a caterpillar eat? Watch it devouring a periwinkle leave - finished the whole leave in less than 3 minutes.