inch to 1 and 3/8 inches in wingspan they are unbelievably tiny creatures that can often be found whirling about plumbago bushes or weeds in a Florida yard. Often people seem to think they must be a day flying moth because no one seems to think butterflies should be that small.This incredibly diminutive butterfly emerged from an equally small chrysalis yesterday in our animal husbandry lab. I don't usually grow them as they aren't a very showy species and can be easily overlooked by guests in the garden but I find them to be a fascinating talking point. I find their tiny-ness to be terribly endearing.
Their larva can be found (if you look very, very closely) on plumbago, rattlebox, hairy milk pea and lima beans. The caterpillars are a brilliant green color much like the plants on which they feed and the larvae are extremely well camouflaged while they grow. Older larvae (like the one pictured) develop a slightly yellowish color that is still nearly impossible to see against the backdrop of a sprawling host plant. I think that size might be an important item to illustrate in the overview of this species and I hope the following photo will be illuminating.
Here is a Cassius Blue caterpillar on my finger next to the green-painted fingernail (which measures a little over half an inch in overall length) of my pinky finger.
4 comments:
Hi, i reached here from your livejournal and was hoping you could help me with my query.
i got this caterpillar 5 days ago, which had immediately bound itself in a chrysalis at the second day. On the third day, it was half mush (top half) half caterpillar (bottom half) and there has been no change since, so i just want to know, is it normal?
It always seem as if they should be mush form in a pretty short time once they started or that was the general impression i get on the Internet.
By the way, the caterpillar in your picture looks really adorable.
Remaining half mush and half caterpillar does not sound very healthy.
Here is a timelapse video of a monarch caterpillar going into chrysalis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY-Fiyq8jc4
And here is a black swallowtail doing the same: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4V_locq3yY&feature=related
Most butterflies going into chrysalis should do something similar. It usually take less than a hour to be finished when the process from the time the caterpillar's skin splits open to reveal the pupal skin.
When the process stalls or stops there is usually something wrong with the larvae and it likely will not survive.
Thanks for the links to the videos. They help a lot to my understanding of what the caterpillar goes through in a cocoon.
The mush sort of disappeared, leaving a smooth lighter green surface. The caterpillar skin is still at the bottom half and upper back. It does full body twitches when i brush the cocoon even now.
Is it possible that the pupal didn't entirely shrug off it's caterpillar skin? Or is it that not entirely shrugging off the skin significantly lowers it's survival rate?
It started as a green caterpillar which had woven itself into a silky translucent cocoon to hold and contain it's body under the edge of the rim of the plastic container.
When a moth caterpillar goes into a cocooon (the silk part on the outside) it will shed its skin inside that cocoon. Sometimes this looks like it is still half wearing its skin but actually the pupa (the skin part that the living creature is inside of) is just partly nestled inside the shed skin that is no longer attached.
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