Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 62, 1 by mellielong

mellielong wrote:
Now, I also have a smaller Spicebush cat that was getting ready to molt to the final instar the other night. Naturally, I wanted to watch. So we sat there all night watching baseball and finally, around 11:30 the cat starts doing the stretchy thing. Except that he keeps it up for like ten minutes and nothing is happening.

I've had to help cats molt before so I went and got a straight pin and thought maybe he hadn't secured himself to the leaf well enough. I took the pin and tried to pull a little of the outer skin loose so I could pin it down. But that still didn't seem to help plus he started leaking a little fluid.

It looked like he wasn't able to puff himself up enough to break the outer skin. So, I thought since they start splitting at the head, maybe I should try there. So I became Dr. Melanie, Caterpillar Surgeon. Very carefully, I took the pin and tried to grab the outer skin at the top of his head. It tore, and his osmeterium (stink horns) popped right out. I don't think he was mad though because he put them away pretty fast. I held his back end again and he started slipping out of the old skin. He struggled a bit once he got around the bottom third so I hooked the pin and pulled the dead skin off.

I've had cats get injured before and with Spicebushes whenever they leak (i.e. bleed) the site of the wound turns dark. Such is the case with this cat. You can see in the pic his booty is much darker than the rest of him. The skin is also harder then the rest of him.

While I was sitting here typing I noticed that he was looking like he was about to poo. I watched because I've been wanting to make sure he's eating and pooping ok. He couldn't seem to push it out so I helped by pressing down a little. Then, I took the pin out again and pulled off some of the blackened skin. I think the skin was too hardened and it wouldn't "give" enough for him to poo. His anus is hanging out a little but at least he can poo. I hope he makes it after everything I've done for him. Everybody root for him!

Oh, and let me just mention that we've discussed on here whether or not caterpillars drink and I've seen them do it. After this one was bleeding last night, I took a drop from the remains of my Sprite and melted ice and set it right in front of him. I watched as he slurped the whole thing down. The drop was about as big as his head; I tried to offer him more but I guess that was a lot for a little caterpillar. I figured he probably needed to replace those fluids and the sugar in the Sprite couldn't hurt either!