Regular Random: five minutes of caterpillar feeding frenzy

/ Su Leslie
Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Image: Su Leslie, 2017
Image: Su Leslie, 2017

Thanks entirely to the Big T’s efforts at butterfly husbandry (more on that to come), our swan plants are positively heaving with Monarch caterpillars.

Most of them are huge and are rapidly chrysalising (if that’s a word) — which is fortunate because at the rate they eat, they are in danger of running out of food.

So this week’s five minutes of random was spent watching swan plant foliage disappear before my eyes.

Five Minutes of Random (the RegularRandom challenge) is hosted by Desley Jane at Musings of a Frequently Flying Scientist.

All photos ©Su Leslie, 2017

26 thoughts on “Regular Random: five minutes of caterpillar feeding frenzy”

        • Silent feeding machines. We have resorted to cutting up pumpkin for them and asking neighbours with swan plants to adopt some of the caterpillars to stop them starving! I came home to find 40 chrysalises and four mushy pumpkin shells (yuk). I’ve cut up another pumpkin and just seen a bunch more chrysalis. I’m starting to feel like a maternity ward nurse. 🙂

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          • Oh my! More like a maternity ward nurse for whales instead of caterpillars!! What an appetite! But then I figure they need as much energy as they can get to transform themselves into such stunning beauties… If only it would work similarly for us! 😂 I bet every model thinks the same! 😀

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          • Wouldn’t that be great! Though I’d want a slightly more varied diet (and one that included cake). Seriously though; they can really pack the food away. I’ve fed them 6 pumpkins and will probably have to go and buy more today. 🙂 xxx

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          • I agree on the more varied kind of diet that includes cakes 😉
            Wow! They will eat you out of house and home if you don´t keep an eye on them! 6 pumpkins! My, imagine they were as big as humans!! That would easily be a horror movie! 😀 xxxx

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          • Aaaagh! That is a really creepy thought. Actually I was getting slightly freaked out just by the sheer number of caterpillars at their regular size! Luckily most have now become chrysalises and a couple even look like they may emerge as butterflies soon. All this butterfly husbandry (or wifery) is exhausting. I think I need the cake. 🙂 Hope you have a wonderful weekend. xxxx 🙂

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    • We’ve had lots of butterflies this year, and would have had a lot more caterpillars without the wasps. My partner’s “hatchery” has worked really well. I counted 43 chrysalises this morning 🙂

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