Tuesday 29 May 2018

Caterpillar Diaries (Part 3)

My Emperor Moth Caterpillars (10 days old)
I've been noticing some interesting behaviour from my caterpillars since that first skin shed. First, they seem to be more ravenous, devouring leaves much quicker and producing more and more frass. I also noticed that the odd one will sometimes curl up as if dead, which I believe as a defence mechanism as when I gently stroked them with my paintbrush, they uncurled to show signs of life. But the strangest thing I've noticed is that they keep gathering on the kitchen roll. They did that the other night and returned to feeding later on the following morning. Could they be sleeping? They've gathered again this morning, though they have yet to move on to feed. Maybe they're getting close to their second skin shed already? They are developing at a rapid pace, its hard to keep up with them!




Huddling together for either sleep or 2nd skin shed?
One curled up, perhaps playing dead?

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