Sunday, April 26, 2015

The next stage

This is Bhīma, one of 11 wild cats I am now following. He is in the classic, prayerful posture, indicating that he is going to shed his 3rd instar skin any day now and emerge into 4th instar.


This is a time of rapid growth. Having lived most of 3rd instar as ascetics, hardly eating at all in the autumn then fasting the whole winter, the newly wakened caterpillars are now guzzling the fresh foliage with relish, moving from leaf to leaf as they eat them up. Bhīma is nearly 9 months old and still small. In just a month and a half he will be fully grown and preparing to pupate.

Guy

2 comments:

irisscientist said...

Guy. Great images once again, especially your prior posting, simply excellent images. Must comment however: not leaf to leaf. Seat leaf to leaf, back to seat leaf. Seat leaf then on to new leaf, back to seat leaf. Repeat. All in the details!

Guy said...

Thank you for the kind comment - and point taken about the foraging routes!

Guy