Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Painted Lady


Found the caterpillar ruining my 'curry plant' so I brought him indoors to control the feeding.

I put him in Kayla's cute little dollar store bug hotel, and fed him selected prunings from my curry plant.


He ate and pooped, ate and pooped, and after about three days he climbed the net side of the bug hotel, attached, and made the J shape characteristic of a caterpillar planning to pupate into a chrysalis covered pupa. (I looked that up in my Peterson First Guides - Caterpillars field guide, pictured above.)



In about a week he should, if all is well, hatch into an American Painted Lady butterfly and I'll let him fly...
No big deal, but a quiet kind of nature-y fun.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

That is a great camera you have. I love catepillars also expecially when they nest in our pear tree oujt back. Sometimes we feed them alfalfa leaf from our herb store.
:-)


Helen Ingram
www.FloridaHerbHouse.com
www.SharpWebLabs.com

Anonymous said...

Beautiful pics!