Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 49, 1 by TexasPuddyPrint

TexasPuddyPrint wrote:
Love that two-tailed tiger cub? Hmmm...if the adults are called tigers...does that make the caterpillars cubs? ROFL!!!

Awesome photo of that Indian Swallowtail Mellie! Colorful!!!

My Pink Spotted Hawkmoth started to pupate a couple of days ago. It was pretty much dormant at the bottom of the cage...but then started to shrink in size yesterday. It's still in the cocoon making process but here's a photo from earlier this evening.

The shed skin is off to the side. Both are Uhhhhhhhgly!!! :o)

By the way...forgot to respond to Thea's question about preparing for pupation. I don't use soil (although have used it before) but tear up a bunch of paper towels and put a layer of "fluff" on the bottom of the cage. Once the caterpillar forms a cocoon I'll clean out the dirty paper towels and put in a fresh layer of shredded pieces again and cover it up with more of the same. I've raised numerous moth cats that way and they all emerged just fine. Besides, I like being able to look in on them daily :o)

~ Cat

ps...it should pupate completely by tomorrow and change to a darker brown color.

This message was edited Oct 10, 2008 8:26 PM