Monday, October 23, 2006


The little orange babies are on the left. The yellow silk thing on the right? No idea what that is. Eggs? A spider? I kept it around for a week or so, during which it did nothing interesting at all, and then I forgot about it.


Escapees, yahhh! I was shelling lignum vitae seeds, off and on, and one morning this is what I found. Even when they were wandering, they went in a line together.


A few days later they'd made a circle around my spray bottle of rubbing alcohol.

Posted by Picasa And now they're big and green and beautiful, with stripes and spikes.

10 comments:

Wonder Woman said...

YUCK!

Again, I'll admit I'm not really a green thumbs kinda gal. But worm like creatures? OH YUCKIE-POO!

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

Lovelovelove this!

Pretty Lady said...

What are they going to turn into?

Cindi said...

Ooooh! That green one is so cute!
I always loved caterpillars when I was a kid but honestly I don't think I have seen one in many many years! I have never seen one that looks so vibrant green as that one either.

I wonder why they were circling around the alcohol bottle? That is so odd! lol

k said...

Wonder Woman, we bug-lovers may all be a little sorry for you. We have so much riches in our love of the beauty of nature. Better to have the largest, most expanded horizons one can.

Thinking these little critters are *gross* is a learned behavior of no merit. It doesn't teach you what you should truly be careful of, and limits your joy in life for no reason at all. You have my condolences, and my hope that one day things will improve for you, for the better of all.

k said...

prettylady, I'm not sure. Sitting around convalescing is a great time to google up, though, so I may find out pretty soon.

Also, Nancy
http://nancysgardenspot.blogspot.com/
may know. She's a great one for caterpillars and pupae.

I'm going to make a guess at moth as opposed to butterfly, based on a lot of silk production the poor sick ones did. Moths alone make the cocoons. But! I think some butterfly caterpillars make silk for other purposes, like ballooning about in the air, or attaching themselves to branches, or swinging around on long lines of silk to drop down from trees and such.

heh! makes me a little jealous sometimes...

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

BTW, k, did you finish Annie Dillard's PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK?

You're THAT kinda girl!

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

PS I am sooo glad your foot and leg are feeling better! I didn't even know all this was going on! I'll have to drop by more often.... but I can see why you particularly liked the bandage on my kid's foot at the mouse funeral. Stay well, my friend!

k said...

miss author of *chrysalis*, indeed I did.

What a wonderful book!

One thing kind of surprised me, though: I've noticed a few folks in the 'sphere listing that book in their profiles and such, and saying that it changed their way of looking at life itself.

It didn't do that for me. Everything she did and said - while wonderfully put, beautifully explored and expressed - it all seemed like normal life to me. No altering of perspective.

I think that's why neighbor Peter thought to give it to me in the first place.

k said...

cindi, ain't he sweet? It's fun to be one of the crazy neighbors here: now, people take no notice of me if I'm sitting on my front porch giggling at a bunch of silly caterpillars walking nose-to-tail, circling around a spray bottle for no reason I could ever determine.

I think if you could ask the critters, *Why?*
they might just say,
*Because it's THERE!*