Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Daily Butterflies Page 54, 1 by TexasPuddyPrint

TexasPuddyPrint wrote:
Update on remaining Julia caterpillar - it has been crawling around the cage with like crazy. Not sure if it is getting ready to pupate or maybe parasitized. Two Zebras in the same cage already started their "J"

As a precaution I moved the Julia cat to a separate cage with new leaves and a twig to crawl up in case it does pupate. Noticed the thorax part looks different - like there is a waxy build-up or something around the neck area - almost like caterpillars look when they start forming a chrysalis. This is odd as it has not attached itself to anything. I do hope it wasn't parasitized as an egg or first instar. Remember I'd found two on my passiflora biflora and the other cat had died a few days ago.

Oh well...time will tell. Here's a photo of it crawling around - you can see how the thorax/shoulder area looks different.

~ Cat



This message was edited Nov 26, 2008 11:25 PM