Chrysalis II

Isn't it beautiful? Look at all the shading there.

I am so glad the caterpillar chose to stay on the tree--apparently, they often don't because the chewed-off leaves are a sign to tell birds "Look! There's a caterpillar here!!"

Of course, the decimated branches are near the top (and slowly starting to re-leaf), and he's down near the base of the tree.

Chrysalis

 

Here's my little Orange Dog caterpillar, safely tucked away for the winter.

I realized the other day that my knowledge of caterpillar metamorphosis came largely from The Very Hungry Caterpillar and exceedingly hazy memories of high school Biology, so I'm trying to do a little reading up on what it is that caterpillars do to become butterflies.

I still need to make a trip to the library, where I hope to find a really good book that details the process, but so far, net searching has given me two new facts (That is, facts that are new to me; others probably know perfectly well):

1) A cocoon is not a chrysalis, and a chrysalis is not a cocoon. Cocoons are spun from silk, the chrysalis is a layer of skin hardened; moths do cocoons, butterflies form chrysalises, so that's what this guy was doing all those days he seemed to just be sitting there shrinking.

2) Butterflies--some? all?--spend some of their time in the chrysalis as a sort of biological soup. No one is really sure how the creature gets from caterpillar to DNA soup to butterfly. That is pretty amazing!

Mystery Caterpillar (3)

Not such a mystery any more. The Giant Swallowtail caterpillar has now coccooned himself.

It took much longer than I thought it would. Three to four days ago he stopped moving around the tree at all and sat near the base of the tree. He shrank a bit, and since there were only a couple of threads between him & the tree, I wasn't sure what was going on--was he spinning his cocoon? Dying? Dead? Were those his threads or Something Else's? I've never watched a single caterpillar this way before.

This morning, I found out what was going on: After the days-long delay, he finally finished the job over night & is tidily waiting for spring. I shall continue to check on him & still have some hope of seeing him emerge.

Mystery Caterpillar (2)

According to the folks over at bugguide.net (a site I am definitely going to remember), my mystery caterpillar is a Giant Swallowtail caterpillar, also known as the orange dog caterpillar.

Quick net research reveals that it is a favorite of butterfly gardeners, but that orange growers have it on their hit list due to its enormous appetite and love of citrus leaves (which means that most of their names for it are probably a lot more colorful and less printable than "orange dog").

I have one lime tree, and I can see why the beast irritates citrus growers: I spotted the caterpillar in the first place because I was trying to figure out what was stripping the leaves off so many branches. On the other hand, as the one-lime-tree status indicates, I am more of a butterfly gardener than a citrus grower. I have watched Giant Swallowtails in the park and admired their slow, circling flight and their beauty. From my point of view, 10-20% of one plant's leaves (it's eaten about 10% now and has, I think, got its current length yet to grow before pupating; assuming I'm correct about its length--how does one measure something that usually sits somewhat bunched up?) is a small price to pay to host that beauty, however briefly.

According to one or the other articles I looked at (probably the wikipedia article), the now one inch (give or take, see above) caterpillar will grow to be two inches before it settles down for the winter in its cozy cocoon for the winter. After that, assuming nothing has parasitized it, it will sleep all winter and come out again in the spring. I really, really hope I get to watch, but my chances are small. We've been hosting fritillaries on our passion vine for years now, and I only rarely get to see the butterflies emerge.

Still, I plan on coddling this fellow as much as I can--which really means leaving it alone and trying to find out whether or not Neem hurts it (probably not; I am sure I've sprayed at least a couple of times since his egg was laid).