|
Post by Lydia Robledo on Aug 19, 2008 19:34:44 GMT
One of the most amazing miracles of nature. Watch out. Will post the caterpillar before it pupated and the adult when it breaks out, maybe in a few hours or a couple of days. Canon EOS 20D 0.008 sec (1/125) 105 mm f2.8 Sigma ISO Speed: 200 Shutter priority Hand held
|
|
|
Post by Lydia Robledo on Aug 19, 2008 19:58:59 GMT
A little over two weeks ago, it looked like this. I used to detest caterpillars. I sometimes feel a little ickity-yikes at first and then I settle down and become friends with this wonderful munching machine. I wish I can be a vegetarian like her/him. I have its food in my garden, an invasive vine. I nurtured this cat. since the 20th of July. It's an endemic, the Idea Leucone, a Nymphalid.
|
|
|
Post by Lydia Robledo on Aug 19, 2008 20:20:28 GMT
Here is the other side of the chrysallis (or pupa- for moths they call it cocoon). The black thing that you see on top of the shell is the old caterpillar. It shed off it's old skin including the head and miraculously changed in appearance. The caterpillar is gone and inside the chrysallis right after the molt was a liquefied substance, I believe it is the same process as that of an egg with a yolk, well, perhaps. The only thing is that the chicken's egg becomes a chick after. The butterfly's egg becomes a caterpillar and the caterpillar disappears and is replaced with a pupa and the pupa that contains the sticky liquid develops into a butterfly. How that happens, ask the Maker. That is why I feel so priveleged. I get to witness this and my fear of caterpillars disappear and instead I'm in awe. Next one... the adult butterfly.
|
|
|
Post by Teddy Regpala on Aug 19, 2008 21:00:14 GMT
Thanks Ate Lyds for this documentary.
They also love the tomato vine.
The reason we stopped (aside from not having time ;D ) planting tomatoes in the vegetable garden for the last two summers, was that it got infected (sorry for the term)with caterpillars ... huge ones. They basically devoured all the leaves of the tomato plants and other nearby vegetables like the eggplants. The sight of them made people (I won't mention names) uneasy, aside from the gazillion droppings the produced on the ground. Yay!
Since we already harvested most of the fruits and vegetables we can salvaged, we have no choice but to clear the vegetable garden ... together with all those obese caterpillars to the green waste bin/s.
Maybe next season, we'll try to plant some vegies again, and maybe a pot or two of butterfly bush (oh yes, I heard the hummers love this too).
|
|
|
Post by Lydia Robledo on Aug 20, 2008 0:40:15 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Lydia Robledo on Aug 20, 2008 1:16:25 GMT
Hi Ted. What attacked your veggies most likely were moth caterpillars. Butterflies are very preferential when it comes to their larval host. Like this Idea butterfly will feed only on a certain vine. It can happen that if you see 20 species of butterflies in your garden, there are also 20 different plants around that each species feed on. There a few butterflies from the same family that feed on the same plant. That is why butterflies are considered environmental indicators. When you see a lot of them, it means that the vegetation around is good- it's biodiversity simply explained. When you do not see butterflies in the forest, that is an indication of a destroyed habitat or maybe the air people breathe in the area is polluted with pesticide. This is why there are not much butterflies in Mt. Kitanglad in the area of Manolo Fortich--- yes, because of Endosulfan being sprayed on thousands of hectares of pineapple plantation. So when you see butterflies fluttering around, be happy, it is good news. Gardening veggies is good. Spray the moth caterpillars with soapy water mixed with siling labuyo. If you have citrus plants and they are eaten up by caterpillars (butterflies), have lemoncitos, they'd prefer it over your calamansi or plant more trees. The butterfly cats. can't finish them up. As a matter of fact, the butterflies will pollinate your calamansi and they will bear a lot of fruit.
|
|