Skip and I were at the waterfront the other evening and I spotted 2 rather large larvae on a milkweed plant. I plucked off their respective leaves and brought them home. They've both either pupated or are in the process of pupating.
To date I've released 3 male adults and have 6 pupae (chrysalises) and 2 hanging in a 'j' getting ready to pupate. I have 8 - 10 larvae in various stages of development and several eggs.
These two will be getting ready to pupate any day now. I have them in a plastic bin covered with mesh. Yesterday I transferred 3 pupae from the mesh above this bin to the top of the Caterpillar Castle by carefully pulling the silken threads away from the mesh and literally stitching each one to the top of the 'castle'. I had to make sure the chrysalises were hard before doing this so as not to harm them.
In the 'castle; the one in the back right is getting ready to pupate. The ones in the front continue to munch and poop away.
Two pupae can be seen behind this 'j' hanger.
In the top centre, another one is hanging in a 'j', getting ready to pupate.
There's a lot of activity in a very small space in my kitchen. I keep finding eggs every time I go out to find fresh leaves for the larvae. I'm going to have to start cruising the area for fresh milkweed before too long as very soon I'll have many more larvae to feed and once they get bigger, they each consume about one leaf per day.
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