I'm back! sorry I haven't been posting for the last 6 months. In march I'm going to get some new caterpillars. I ordered cecropia, polyphemus, luna, and promethea eggs. I will raise them in pie 0r cake tins. I"m going to put 12 caterpillar eggs in each. (which is just an excuse to have 4 cakes!).

In the picture this is a cecropia caterpillar in its 5th instar. (the last, not counting the pupal shed). This is not my hand - I got this image from wormspit.com. I ordered my eggs from www3.islandtelecom.com

I have some monarch chrysalids now. This is my newest monarch chrysalis. If you open a moth cocoon (cocoons are what moths spin), you will find the skin it shed inside the cocoon. If you have a pre-pupa that spins a chrysalis, it will shed its skin outside the chrysalis. On these pictures, you can see some bright colors on this monarch chrysalis. This one has fallen off of a stick that I put in my bug pavilion. If you look close, you can see this pupa's wings. On another chrysalis I have you can even see orange.

butterflies at the museum

We visited the nature museum yesterday and went into the special butterfly room. The top picture is of a zebra butterfly. We don't know what the other two are.

monarch caterpillars cocooning

The top picture is a caterpillar fully hardened - it's a chrysalis. The lower picture is a different monarch caterpillar hanging upside down, getting ready to be a hardened chrysalis. I hatched both of these from eggs I found.

Painted Lady 2nd Instar

Most of my painted lady caterpillars are on their second instar. This caterpillar (above) is also in its second instar.

This video and picture are of a painted lady caterpillar at 60x magnification. This is one of the many hatchlings from when my painted lady butterflies laid eggs. I probably have 45 of them. I have them in the same rearing container that my painted lady caterpillars came in.I gave them some thistle leaves. I probably have enough thistle to feed them.

Monarch Caterpillar Shedding Skin & 5th Instar Monarch Caterpillar

The top picture is of an energetic monarch shedding its skin at the same time. I know it's shedding because it has a yellow head.

The bottom picture another monarch caterpillar that is in its 5th instar. If I were the dime, I'd be scared - it's a big one.

I hatched them from eggs I found on milkweed - one at my house, one at my park.