Caterpillar approaching the last instar.

Still plenty of vines left from feeding 18 or so of these 2-inch fellers.

Several seed pods approaching maturity.

Before the last molting, they make a big weird poop
compared to the regular green pellets.

Yuck!

These drops can be seen all over now.

This is in the hour before molting out to a chrysalis. You can see a greenish cast through the skin. We found this guy on our house, south facing with afternoon shade from the leaf, about 40 feet from the Pipevine.

The patterns look like a face.

It looks like Yogi Bear to me.

You can see two silk threads attached to the head and the freshly shed skin below. After emerging, it was easy to see the resemblance to the caterpillar especially because it was soft and wiggling but the shell becomes stiff soon.

This is a week later and the whole thing has turned bright green!

return to intro of the caterpillar series

Back to my main Aristolochia page