Join Nature Notes-What are you or have you seen and enjoyed in nature? It can be from your own backyard, the local park, out on a hike or anywhere. What plants and animals catch your interest? Do you garden? Have you read a good book on nature?

I am still working with this new WordPress post editor is more work and not easier as they said…

We have 4 spicebush shrubs and all are in bloom

I was able to watch a female spicebush swallowtail butterfly nectar on my flowers and lay eggs on the spicebush. She looked kind of worn and faded but still beautiful. I have raised a few spicebush swallowtail butterflies who use it as a host plant. But the pupa overwinters and emerges in springtime so I have kept them in my fridge…This was a photo journey that I made in 2012

I didn’t know what to do as it is a small bush and I didn’t know if it would be able to support any caterpillars as they eat a lot. Someone from Monarch Watch told me how set up a rearing tank. By the time I was comfortable enough to try this I couldn’t find another egg. I found only empty shells where something had eaten them and this is common. But on the underside of one leaf, I found a tiny little caterpillar that looked like bird poo.Looking like bird poo is a disguise so that it doesn’t look good to eat.

 2012

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I took a plastic container and put small holes in it to hold the spicebush twigs and filled the bottom with water careful to make sure the caterpillar could not fall in and drown.  These caterpillars only feed at night so I didn’t get to see much. The water got changed daily and every other day I added a fresh twig with leaves.

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The spicebush caterpillar tucked into a leaf “nest” that it made putting silk on both sides of the leaf. The silk would start to pull the sides of the leaf in gradually making a leaf roll for the cat to hide in during the day. The arrow point to the tiny cat in its leaf nest.

July 31, 2012

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You can see notched out pieces of leaf that show where the caterpillar ate at night and the little cat getting bigger by the day. There are 5 instars or molts where the caterpillar sheds it skin in order to grow bigger.

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I think this is a 4th instar and it looks like bird poo or with its eye spots, like a snake to scare off predators. I took this late at night as I didn’t see it during the day time.

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I think this is a 5th instar and the last molt before it looks for a place to become a pupa. It is in its original leaf nest that it used for over 3 weeks to hide in.

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The 5th instar caterpillar eats more and more often and I would catch a brief glimpse of it sometimes during the day. But it would then freeze and when I walked away, go back to its nest.

Just before the caterpillar becomes a pupa, it turns yellowish or orangish, stops eating, purges its digestive system and looks for a place to pupate. I took out the leaves and put in a stick.

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The caterpillar found a place to pupate and attached itself with silk and makes a silk band under its body that looks like a belt.

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For 24 hours it hangs until its last molt into a pupa which I missed of course. In the early house the pupa was very yellow and gradually became more green with the typical horns and some brown markings making it look like a leaf.

Here is the final chrysalis. It looks like a leaf on purpose to help conceal it. This caterpillar may not emerge as a butterfly until next spring as the spicebush does over winter as a pupa. In that case, I will have to expose it to our winter weather.

 

Have a wonderful nature-filled week! Please be safe.