Is what eventuated.
And this from a caterpillar that hung from the branch like a dead thing for over eighteen hours. Transformed overnight.
Cocoon in the upper mid left area, quite well camouflaged.
Just lucky I didn’t tidy the whole thing away, which I didn’t do because the leafy wild lemon branches donated at the last minute had on them a very young instar.
Starting the whole cycle again.
I’m hoping for this https://www.google.com/search?q=wasp%20parasite%20on%20Orchard%20Swallowtail&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-m#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:81f10512,vid:rC4PssRlfx0,st:9
to happen some time in the next couple of hours. We’ve got 34 degrees Celsius forecast today. There are only three leaves remaining. Only three caterpillars.
Yesterday the predators were starting to gather …
A tiny parasitic wasp … probably intending to lay its eggs in a caterpillar or two
This evil looking fly …
Also sitting and waiting …
Then there is the evidence of an Asian gecko in the scene … a loud call and its droppings … I suspect that it took number four.
Caterpillars, that is. I wish they would just hurry up and pupate. They’re so exposed. And they’re doing weird stuff like this … (this photo from indoors looking out)… three congregating at the top of the largely denuded bush?
The one with what turned out to be a tiny white spider moult stuck on its back, is still eating. There are maybe six whole leaves left and a few halves.
Below, photo snapped from afar, number four is still eating …
I wouldn’t have been able to get citrus leaves till tomorrow, so I told my contact don’t worry we’ll have to let nature its way. They’re still a worry.
And then there five. Caterpillars. Another one fell down and …
But managed to climb back up, slowly and laboriously, arriving much diminished. Losing about a quarter of its weight, it looks like.
Picking up some fluff on its back—I’m afraid that if I tweezer it off I’ll do it a worse injury—but after half an hour back up there with its mates, eating eating eating to make up for lost time.
I don’t know what happened to the ones missing. The Asian gecko got it? A noisy miner snuck in? The Moggy cat taste tested them? Though they must’ve been on the ground already.
With only about thirty leaves remaining and six voracious appetites still working hard to gather enough energy for the next stage, I’m starting to wonder which of them will win the race and which will fall.
Two large large, four medium large, one still black and white and looking anorexic. Fifty or thereabouts leaves remaining on the bush and it’s looking quite bedraggled.
With so much less vegetation to hide in, makes me wonder what daredevil bird will snap them up.
An unusual color … I expected their next stage to be greenish grey. Wonder if I caught them in mid transformation? But could also be due to the food supply, not their usual.
Rita de Heer 