Saturday, April 25, 2009

Cecropia Caterpillar Hatchling and Eggs



this is a cecropia caterpillar. As you can see, it's not in its last instar. It's a hatchling. I got this from Bill Oehlke as an egg. He sent me about 20 eggs. I had refrigerated it (I wouldn't recommend this because if you forget a lot of stuff like me you could leave it in the refrigerator too long. If you wish to refrigerate, only do it for a week at most. I refrigerated it because the leaves weren't ready and I needed to wait a little longer). After I took them out of the refrigerator it took 9 days to hatch. This hatchling is 3 days old. It's starting to make frass (poop) - the two little black things below it. In the lower right, you can see that there are some bite marks on the leaf. This is a common lilac leaf. I have one in my backyard. The hatchlings are successfully eating. these eggs are considered large compared to other ones.