half-leaf and little bit

when we get things we tend to get them in three sizes. daddy, momba, and renee sized. so mr. picky is in a chrysalis now. and his two compatriots, half-leaf, who has a curious habit of eating one half leaf at a time, right down to the vein. and little bit who is tiny and still making little holes in the leaves. they do this until they get larger.

mr. picky used to flag the leaves to stop the flow of milk. eating just enough of the stem to bend the leaf down and stop the flow to eat the entire leaf from the underside right across the vein.

tuesday afternoon, mr. picky was still hanging like a j, but moving his mouth like a newborn wanting milk. i returned later, to find him completely green and his skin nearly sloughed off. he was squirming around like he was trying to get in (or out) of a girdle. ever tried to put one of those things on ladies? this little guy dropped off his outer skin and antennae and was left a long green sour apple jelly bean looking specimen.

inside the pupa, he continued to undulate and girate. like he had a hoola hoop in there. the pupa twisted many, many times on that tiny silken string and it elongated and retracted, ultimately becoming a standard pupa. it got yellow dots and a yellow horizontal stripe on it which my girl said looked like gold.

half-leaf, meanwhile is defoliating everything he can. he is huge, probably twice as big as mr. picky was when he chrysalized (or pupated is the right term, i think).

little bit was the size of a half-inch of angel hair pasta (for not liking to talk about food, i sure use it a lot in my descriptions, eh?). now, he has doubled in size and looks to consume all the remaining food today.

we must get more.

i awoke this morning and was shocked. the chrysalis hangs on a stripped bare stem which has been eaten around entirely. everything above is gone. they moved on to the next leaf. there must be some unspoken code amongst caterpillars, don't dislodge the chrysalis of others (or do unto others as you'd have them do unto you). imagine that.

so the feast continues. the search for food begins in earnest. and we wait wondrous transformation, the emergence. the rebirth. from death to life. though mr. picky hasn't died, he is no longer mr. picky. he will become what he was meant to become. something glorious that will waft away upon the breezes.

and i for one, can't wait to see it. i'm told by my girl it takes 9 to 15 days. won't be long kids. won't be long.

peace.