Moth's first flight

Are you able to see it? (One) Highest on our West end of Periwinkle shrub and most vague.

Another hiding along the main stem Southward (Two), while the other two resting Northward (Three and Four).

(Five) Cliffhanger towards East end. While the last, the pic below, busy muching on a stem (Six). They were spotted mid-Oct.

False eyes appeared two days later.

This first caterpillar turning yellow, a colour change process. They're voracious muncher when green then they'll go dormant in brown and black colours before turning into a pupa in next 2 or 3 days then morphed into a moth in 2 weeks time.

This 'cutie' has somehow managed to crawl 26 feet away from the Periwinkle shrub to look for a hiding place amongst the river-washed-pebbles. During this period, brown caterpillar does "electric-shock" movements when it sense danger or something touches it. A defense mechanism.

Worried over the chances being crushed or stepped on, we placed it in a clear glass bowl with a layer of old newspaper. 'Cutie' crawled and nestled underneath the paper.

The rest? Well, they seem to have disappeared from the Periwinkle without a sight.

'Cutie' successfully morphed at night. Moth emerged from its pupa.

My DH ever concerned over it final survival, he soaked cotton pad with honey for 'cutie' to sip and energise. We'll never know if it enjoys the sweetness because its' movement is soooo slow.

The next morning, 'cutie' left us. DH made sure if surrounding was tampered by predators or pests, but none. So we assume it has successfully taken its first flight to freedom :)

Happy November 'Cutie'.

Busy Bee

Snapshots on a bee on Lantanas this morning.


As a child, was told to run away to avoid getting bee sting. On a instinct the moment I heard a buzzing-swish, I was about to flee. I stopped to think, this bee is after the nectar, not me. Standing still, trying my very best to catch a perfect shot (*sigh* need to upgrade this camera-la).


Little bee is spoilt for choice, so busy buzzing from one stem to the other. Couldn't care less about my presence. It seem to want to own the whole garden brimming with Lantanas' striking colours.

Other striking blooms; Gomphrena Globosa and Gerbera Daisy. Gerbera looks tired, sun-bleached, despite its stem and leaves healthy sheen of green.

Blue? Yes? Yes?

Yellow Alder (Turnera), self-sown in July outside of our perimeter wall. I brought it in, saved from grass-cutters. Matures 2 months later, now blooming beside Heliconia.

Pothos (mixed of variegated, deep green), you can say this "rojak" synonymous for mixed-up and messy. If uncontrolled will lead to what we'll call 'jungle-look'. For Chinese, we love healthy greens that symbolise money. Most leafy evergreen with sheen of green is favored for good fengshui. Pothos on southwest window sill while Episcia, northwest. Episcia grown from cuttings and replanted into the window-box late July, is catching up with Pothos that was planted in March. When it does, it'll be full of chilli red blooms!

Did some tidying up over the weekend. Garden needs some primping; anxious over the coming family renunion. This gathering coincides with a annual major festival celebrated by our muslim friends. It is a special occasion where muslim families reunite after fasting from dawn to dusk for 29 or 30 days (also known as 'Ramadan' month) is called 'Hari Raya Adilfitri' (Celebration Day of Fasting). Public holidays for 2 days. Therefore many, other races included, will take the opportunity to travel for a long vacation or out-station visitation.

Small planter boxes half-filled with blooms and greens. I combined into a bigger planted box, spread them in rows with spaces in between for better growth.

A good advice, to gently dig circling round the base of stem and avoid its roots, 2-inches deep then lift. Slowly disentangle twined roots with both hands. To reuse soil, stir to breakdown compacted soil and mix. Fill the new box with a thin layer of coco peat, with 2 inches deep of soil. Pressed to compact the soil then make an-inch deep hole to place the seedling. Top up with more soil in between after you are satisfied with the placement of all the seedlings. Pressed lightly to compact soil, this minimises air pockets where fungal disease thrive easily. Lastly, water.

Caterpillars [update]

Green caterpillars spotted on our 5.5 feet tall Periwinkle Vinca. Next 2 days, we've collected total of 8 caterpillar and feeding them fresh periwinkle leaves 4 times a day. They nap sometimes for about 15 minutes before munching again. Heavy eaters as well as "shitters" so need to clean out the glass bowl periodically. The fun part is when enticing them with fresh leaves to retrieve them from the bowl. Very sporting

A pair of bright 'False-eyes' formed on each caterpillar a day laterOnce they turned brown, they stopped eating (and shitting as well). They vibrate themselves as if electricity shock if we ply them with food or any touches. Pretty sensitive buggers. This change took about 2 days from when we caught them, as they were already matured in size, 4-inch long x half inch wide.

Next stage, we think they turned into 'pupa' after 3 days of inactivity. This snapshot taken a week after.

5 surviving pupas, they wiggled a bit when moved. They seem to be sensitive to sounds as well.

Bottom pic is its head that came off when they changed into pupa.

I'll be adding a video of these wigglys soon. Stay tune!

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.

Green Caterpillar

Neighbour's maid, wide-eyes frantically calling out for me and pointing in panic at our Periwinkle Vinca; there were huge and green ever-hungry green crawlies. She saw 7 of these caterpillars; so far we had 4 in a container, missed out one camourflaged so well later to be killed because in contact with pesticide.

The biggest fella about 4-inch long and nearly 1-inch big in dia - so fat, juicy and slow moving.


Ladies were grossed out at the sight of it.

Finally it made sense of those green balls stuffs on the concrete ledge - caterpillars' waste (shit). Hmmm it's fertilizer time anyway. ;-P

Giant Grasshopper

2nd grasshopper sighted. 3-inch long. Huge! But we have to chase it away or destroy it before it starts consuming succulent leaves. Hopefully it didn't lay eggs in my garden.















































I can't decide which fits my grasshopper pic;

• Melanoplus is the largest grasshopper, nearly 5 cm long. Some have intricate colourful patterns and others are drab.
• Valanga irregularis, common names are Giant Grasshopper, Hedge Grasshopper. Females are usually larger than males, averaging 45 - 55 mm. Read about their favs are hibiscus - gosh my nextdoor neighbour has a pot, hibiscus brackenridgei.

I'm no "Miss Muffet"

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet

Eating her curds and whey

Along came a spider

Who sat down beside her

And frightened Miss Muffet away!

Was capturing Alisma P. for a good shot until came a spider beside me. But this "Miss Muffet" isn't frightened by this spider ;-)

5-inch long Butterfly - oops it's a Moth :)

Whoaa .. it's so huge that you can't miss it. 5-inch (12cm) long butterfly (in-progress checking on its species), pretty tame. Gave us quite a fright when it flew about overheads, in and out of the house. But if you're looking out for it, it is visible as far as 21 feet away. Somehow it got used to the camera flashlight and it stayed for 20 minutes to pose for me. ;-)

Symbolic meanings from WikiAnswers;

Butterfly is called "hu-tieh" in Chinese, "tieh" means 70 years that symbolises longevity and represents young men in love.

For the Japanese, it represents young maidens and marital bliss. Which is why it is common to find butterfly design on families' crest.

Reversely, the Germans believed that when butterflies hovering around milk pails or butter churns; are witches trying to steal the cream.

While ancient Greek considered butterflies as souls of those who passed away and an Irish saying, "Butterflies are souls of the dead waiting to pass through purgatory".

Malaysian Butterflies http://wildsidephotography.ca/butterflies.html

My Butterfly Gallery http://angelfire.com/journal2/chinfashin/piclist/piclist.html

Update Oct-12: Anatomy of Butterfly.

Update Sep-27: Thanks to James Missier (yet again), an incredible find which took me months! I found an interesting site sells framed insects showing types of Uraniid Moths from the Family Uraniidae. Closest resemblance would be Nyctalemon sp.

Well, I'll leave the Anatomy of Butterfly here for the time-being. Checkout Butterfly and Moth Anatomy; difference would be a Moth does not have 'Proboscis' and 'Spiracles' (the part after 'Abdomen').