Look closely at the photo below, and you can see one crawling out from its shell.
Even as they emerge from their eggshells, these caterpillars are already much larger than other caterpillars in their first day or two of life, giving a good indication of the incredible growth still to come. The newly-emerged larvae are about .25 inches long, with huge spikes - they're little horned devils already!
Note that when they first hatch, as in the photo above, the coloration is slightly different until the spikes dry and harden. The first meal for these hatchlings is often their own eggshell, which will give them enough sustenance for the first day or so in case they need to make a journey to an acceptable food plant.
For now, we're feeding these larvae on leaves from the Wright Brothers Sweet Gum tree, but our tree is fairly small and these caterpillars will soon become very large. At that point, we'll switch to another host plant that grows more plentifully here on site. In the meantime, these little monsters are just getting started... stay tuned for more updates on their growth and development!
Hello... About a month ago my husband found a dying moth. Before it died it laid eggs. The eggs started hatching on July 28th, and most of the caterpillars have gone through three instars. Do you know how many weeks from hatching to pupation? I heard they eat a lot during their final instar, and changing diets when they are this big might be challenging. I am sure the 18 survivors will completely destroy the button bush that I purchased just for them, so I need to make sure I have enough food for when that time comes.
ReplyDeleteHi Luz, we put up this post at the end of June when the caterpillars were hatching. Ours are just now going to pupa. Expect 5-6 week of feeding, but that may vary if they are kept in cooler temperatures as it slows down their metabolism and eating.
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