so we got more milkweed but had a stowaway and another hitchhiker on the underside of the leaves. we named one stowaway, the other, sir drops a lot. (this was suggested as a nickname for half-leaf, but he all ready has a name, so it was agreed upon to dub the little bitty one we just acquired sir drops a lot).
i moved the whole army of caterpillars outside so i didn't have to infest the house with aphids, which were all over the plant we had just acquired.
the thing about half-leaf is, he straddles the atlantic seaboard. mr. picky used to stand upsidedown under a leaf. half-leaf tends to mount his meal. he starts somewhere around maine, and works his way down through new york, over into pennsylvania, down through the carolinas, all the way to florida and across to the ole miss.
he would then move to the pacific, eat his way through washington, oregon, and idaho, devouring the dakotas and ole miss all the way down to the gulf of mexico. very systematic.
yesterday was his roaming day. he was trying to find a place to pupate. so i kept putting him where i wanted him to be. (when i first saw him in the morning he was still on the roof of the mesh enclosure i had around the plants, a collapsable hamper, actually) none of them were moving and i thought he was going to pupate right then. until i realised it was too cold. so i put them in the sun, and half-leaf zipped around like he was turbo charged after that.
ultimately i had my way, he got still and settled on the underside of a leaf, last night around 8 i went down and he had dropped into the tell tale j
stowaway and littlebit molted, dropping tiny casings of chitin. and their little faces remained yellow for about a minute or two until the black stripes came in.
sir drops a lot's whereabouts are unknown.
i will likely spend much time today checking in on the progress of half-leaf. watching him squirm out of his mortal coil.
mr. picky's wings are developing nicely. you can see them taking shape through the gentle green walls of the pupa.
what i thought was a yellow stripe is actually tiny yellow dots, which do look more like gold than yellow. and i've come to discover pupa in latin means gold.
such terrible wonders abound. yesterday was a good day indeed.
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2 comments:
My goodness. Such wonders indeed! I wonder where the little one happened off to.
Wouldn't it be something if we had such scheduled changes in our own Christian journey?
Let's see... Young Siouxie has been eating like a fiend, but has a definite direction which is apparent by the pattern of her munches.
Ah yes, she's breasted the West Coast and is slowing down to a crawl. The beaches are warm and embrace her. She finds herself an umbrella to shade her from the direct sun and climbs, climbs, climbs to the crest of the pole.
Ahh. Home at last. She wraps her towel around herself and begins to slowly, but madly spin out of control. A golden thread of determination spins around and around. She goes until she is so spunout that she must needs to stop the spinning.
Sleep overtakes her. Wrapped up in an assurance that another day will come, Siouxie rests assured.
Meanwhile the Father is doing a marvelous work in her. She is vulnerable and transparent as she yields to the Father's bidding.
As she is in complete surrender the Father is transforming her. He is re-creating her. Taking away the nature of wandering and putting inside of her instead a plan for her life.
She awakens. The warm fuzzies have passed. Instead she finds a heart for the Father full of adventure. I must be about my Father's business she dreamily surmises. Away, I must fly!
thank you audrey. you do get me. and i think you may be right.
i shall blog my musings of the day later, i watched half leaf pupate. such a wonder.
blessings,
suz.
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