The Angry Kid found one of these beauties creeping across the sidewalk yesterday. She fell in love, and so I went to find a mason jar. I stuffed it full of damp Queen Anne's lace and popped in Mr. Caterpillar on a nice sturdy stick. Of course I nailed some holes in the lid before screwing it down. He crawled around inside the jar for a while and then settled down on a comfortable part of the stick.
The problem is that Mr. Caterpillar had kind of a rough time before we installed him safely in the jar. He was dropped from great caterpillar heights several (3) times. The Angry Kid learned that if you poked him, cool orange things would pop out of his head and he would squirt something foul-smelling.
Because he was fully mature and crawling around on the ground, I expected him to pupate. Sure enough, this morning he was still on the stick, and had pasted his tail down with a glob of silk. But he was strangely quiet, and seemed smaller somehow.
To make matters worse, I had promised the Angry Kid she could share Mr. Caterpillar with her preschool friends. We took him in this morning, and I left his jar on a table in the classroom.
I think I killed him.
Update. The Angry Kid's teacher must have convinced her that Mr. Caterpillar would be happier outside. So he was stuffed into a "hole in a bush" (AK's words). At least I don't have to throw a teeny tiny funeral.
Update 2. The Angry Kid's teacher told me today that the caterpillar was alive at the time of his release. Furthermore, the preschool class checked on him today and he was gone. I suspect he was transformed into bird food. The Angry Kid is convinced he transformed into a butterfly. Who am I to argue?
6 comments:
That looks like a parsleyworm (Papilio polyxenes), though there are multiple species that look like it, so I'm not certain. I've written some about that species in this post (including information on what those orange things that popped out when you touched it are). I've also got some pictures, including some of the pupa, in this photoset. That should at least give you some idea what the pupa should look like if you want to go hunt for it.
Oh, and caterpillars can be pretty hardy; as long as they don't end up with a hole in their body, they can survive pretty large falls and much poking.
I had also assumed, with the help of http://www.whatsthatbug.com, that it was a parsleyworm (or black swallowtail). But I do think we killed him. (Or, he was wandering around on the sidewalk because he was sick.) How long does it take for pupation after the caterpillar glues himself down?
I read your post on parsleyworms. Those are some beautiful photos, Radagast. As for the color differences within the species, one of my references said that these variations arise because of the time the creature spends in the sunlight. I would love to know how you managed to capture the osmenteria on film.
Radagast, I checked (briefly) through your archives and didn't find how the story ended. Did you get to see lots of black swallowtail butterflies hatch out?
Hey, Angry, birds gotta eat, too.
If it helps at all, lots of songbirds time their broods so that they hatch at the same time that caterpillars are out...so you might have helped a baby bird. They need the protein, after all.
I once stuck a tomato catepillar in an empty milk carton, put it it my room and forgot about it.
Then on morning I heard a horribly racket and tracked it to the milk carton. The catepillar had pupated and turned into a gigantic moth.
I had a heck of a time getting it out of the carton to set it free, It was a plastic carton.
I was pretty amazed by the whole thing.
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