Fallen

An unfortunate event occurred in the monarch enclosure today. As you may recall, there were two caterpillars that I expected to begin preparing for pupation yesterday, and they didn't–as far as I know. Usually the caterpillars go to the top of the enclosure to pupate, because their chrysalis hangs downward, and though one of them did spend some time wandering around the cage yesterday, when I went to bed last night they were both on a leaf. One was on the bottom, doing nothing (which they sometimes do) and the other was eating the leaf. When I got up this morning I checked the top of the enclosure to see if either of them had gone up there overnight, and neither was there. I found one still eating that leaf, and couldn't find the other one anywhere. However, there were other leaves there that I thought could be hiding it. Today I decided that the cage needed straightening up, and I needed to bring the caterpillars more leaves to eat. I do clean out the frass, but there was a lot that was beginning to build up because there are some big caterpillars in there now. When I was cleaning out the enclosure I found the missing caterpillar curled up on the bottom. It was the greenish color that they turn when they are in the J shape waiting to chrysalize. Well, last night I was reading about various diseases and parasites that can kill monarch caterpillars, and they often succumb to disease just at the point they should be turning into a chrysalis, so I assumed that it was ill and dying. It was still alive, it moved when I picked up the piece of newspaper it was on, but it didn't look right. It had a bit of leaf stuck to it, which I didn't want to pull off, so I just left it there. I assumed it was holding onto it with its legs. Anyway, I put it in isolation away from the other caterpillars just to see what would happen, and to protect the others if it turned out that a parasitic wasp was going to come out of it (it happens). Well, this evening I looked in its little isolation container and saw this:

 It's a chrysalis. I see now that it was attached to the leaf with its silk mass–it must have gone into the J pose there after I went to bed last night, and the other caterpillar ate the area of the leaf where it was hanging, and it fell. I wish I had noticed it was attached with the silk mass, I would have hung it from something. I don't think it is going to form properly into a butterfly having chrysalized lying down like that. I just assumed it was sick. I guess time will tell if it will survive this.

In other monarch news...

 ... this egg looks like it is about to hatch. The dark spot at the top is the head of the tiny caterpillar inside. And speaking of caterpillar eggs, when I went outside to cut new milkweed leaves for the caterpillars, I had a hard time finding a plant that didn't already have eggs or a caterpillar on it!

It rained all day today, so I had to turn on the porch light this evening to find bugs. I couldn't exactly use the monarchs AGAIN.

Backyard Bug of the Day

 This is a geometer moth, which means it was once a looper caterpillar. In the books it appears to be a southern emerald moth, but those are only found in southern states, from what I read, so perhaps it is something related.

Other bugs on the porch:

 I wonder if this tiny grasshopper is about to molt.