Babysitting

A friend of a friend raises Cecropia Moths (the ones we saw hatch a few weeks ago) and gifted us with some caterpillars to raise.

The caterpillars shed their skins four times before they spin their cocoons. Each stage between molts is called an instar.

They were just itty bitty things.

They live in an aquarium stocked with fresh Black Walnut leaves. They can eat a wide variety of leaves, including some species of maples, elderberries, dogwoods, ash, cherries,willows, and oaks. They ate only Black Walnut during their first instar and should eat the same species during their growth, so that's what we're feeding them.

It wasn't long before they shed their skins and entered another instar.

The next day, the colours had brightened.

The red end is the head. I think of "bugs" as having six legs so I was momentarily confused by all the limbs. Moving from head to tail, I learned that the first three legs are thoracic legs, the next four are abdominal prolegs (not true legs, they don't have joints), and the final leg is the anal proleg. All the better to grasp twigs and branches. As moths, they'll have the typical six legs.

The toes of the abdominal prolegs are blue! Anal proleg, gripping.

Munch munch munch, you can see the bite marks on the leaf. They eat a lot, systematically and efficiently. The bigger they get, the faster the leaves have to be replaced.

This is as close as I've gotten to seeing a face.

Before they molt, they remain still for a time. This one didn't move or eat for three or four days, and then...

ah, fresh skin!

They've been eating the molted skin; it's additional nutrition and would be a signal to predators if left lying about. I'll keep watching and shooting as they continue to eat, grow, and spin their cocoons.