We have had much excitement over the last fortnight. The Aristolochia vine that we planted near the door AND the vine out in the rainforest have sported caterpillars. One day we saw six of them at once. They are as big as an adult's forefinger, and since the vine is beside the elevated deck, we have a great view of them just a metre away and at eye level.
Since then we have seen caterpillars move to adjoining jaboticaba branches to pupate, then hatch and finally we have seen butterflies return to lay eggs. Below are photos of the entire process ...
This is a caterpillar just starting to lighten. They seem to start out black and gradually become grey. The photo below shows the caterpillar's yellow "horns". Evidently they protrude these when they are disturbed
Here is a really grey caterpillar, providing an elegant curve around the vine. They eat the whole thing - leaves and stems. Below are two caterpillars, one still on the vine and eating, the other on the jaboticaba twig looking for a place to pupate.
In the photo below, the caterpillar has attached its anchor thread around itself, attached its rear to the twig, and is preparing to pupate. It then stayed like this for two days before it changed. In the back ground you can see the empty pupal case of another butterfly.
One morning we found that the grey motionless caterpillar had changed into a yellow- green chrysalis.
Here you can see an empty chrysalis and the butterfly that emerged from it. This is a female, so there are no green markings to be seen.
The photo below is a closer view of the empty chrysalis shell, clearly showing the split along the back whence the butterfly emerged.
The final picture was not, in fact, taken at Biandar. I downloaded it from the web, to show the male and female butterflies together. The male is much more colourful, and the female is larger.
