Caterpillar update!
About a week ago, the caterpillar stopped eating and doing "business", and started long explorations of his enclosure.
I had built a central area consisting of sticks, put up in such a way that he might like them to hang to pupate. The caterpillar examined every detail of these sticks, but moved on.
He then set about weaving a ladder of silk threads, and climbed up the side of the tupperware container. There is a tiny "lip" just there and it seemed he chose that to hang from. There were lots of webs attached which he had created.
But the next day he was down from there and on the floor of the container. He had woven more webs there.
I watched and waited but didn't disturb him.
Two days ago he was beginning to change. He was twitching slightly, and turning a different shade of green.
Then yesterday I looked and now he is a black pupa. He is on the floor of the container and is in a horizontal position. I don't know if this is right for him or not but it was his own choice. I offered him the sticks and he didn't want them. And he seemed to reject any other place to pupate. I hope I haven't been ignorant, and missed something he needed....
So now we wait and see what happens. Sometimes I hear they can die as a pupa. Let's hope he doesn't.
But one thing this has shown me is -it took so much energy for him to weave those webs. If "Silk Worms" are doing the same thing, then it is very cruel indeed to rob them of the webs they build, in order for humans to create "silk".
I wouldn't have anything to do with silk. I knew that before, but watching that caterpillar work so hard and his webs being so necessary for him to make, made me feel a lot of compassion for those silk worms.
About a week ago, the caterpillar stopped eating and doing "business", and started long explorations of his enclosure.
I had built a central area consisting of sticks, put up in such a way that he might like them to hang to pupate. The caterpillar examined every detail of these sticks, but moved on.
He then set about weaving a ladder of silk threads, and climbed up the side of the tupperware container. There is a tiny "lip" just there and it seemed he chose that to hang from. There were lots of webs attached which he had created.
But the next day he was down from there and on the floor of the container. He had woven more webs there.
I watched and waited but didn't disturb him.
Two days ago he was beginning to change. He was twitching slightly, and turning a different shade of green.
Then yesterday I looked and now he is a black pupa. He is on the floor of the container and is in a horizontal position. I don't know if this is right for him or not but it was his own choice. I offered him the sticks and he didn't want them. And he seemed to reject any other place to pupate. I hope I haven't been ignorant, and missed something he needed....
So now we wait and see what happens. Sometimes I hear they can die as a pupa. Let's hope he doesn't.
But one thing this has shown me is -it took so much energy for him to weave those webs. If "Silk Worms" are doing the same thing, then it is very cruel indeed to rob them of the webs they build, in order for humans to create "silk".
I wouldn't have anything to do with silk. I knew that before, but watching that caterpillar work so hard and his webs being so necessary for him to make, made me feel a lot of compassion for those silk worms.
