Making a caterpillar hammock

Cabbage white butterflies go through several generations each year. In warm weather, a complete cycle takes from one to two months. Over the winter, though, the caterpillar goes dormant in his chrysalis, stuck to a leaf or twig. A three-point attachment is all that holds him, through rain, snow, wind, and ice storms. And through all the shaking and jerking about he goes through as he sheds his old skin. There's a spot of glue at the tip of his tail, and a fragile-looking thread glued to the leaf on either side, and strung over his back. That seems to be enough.

Day-old chrysalis. The thread is visible across his mid-section.

I've been wondering how the caterpillar manages to tie a thread behind his own back, and managed to catch my latest visitor demonstrating the technique.

First, he selects his leaf. He was eating nasturtiums, but moved to maple for the winter.

He bends over backwards, and turns to one side.

Glues a strand of silk to the leaf on his left,

Swings back, stretching at right angles to his leaf,

continues the swing

to the right side,

and glues the thread down.

He repeated this action about a dozen times, then returned to his upright position and started the transformation.

Here he is, on video, in real time. It's a painstakingly slow process.


If you watch this at full size, it's easy to see the thread stretching over his back.

But he says, in the immortal words of the Cat in the Hat, "That's not all I can do!" More tomorrow.

Salt and pepper butterfly

Cabbage white butterflies are probably the first we see in the spring, and the last we'll see as winter approaches. This one has been around for a while. Her* wings are torn, and many of the feathers have been rubbed off.

I've never seen one so speckled before. Age spots, maybe?

*I think it's a female. Males have one black spot on each upper wing, females have two.

While the sun still shone

It has been raining, desultorily, without enthusiasm; too damp for gardening, too cool for bugs, too grey for photos. Most of my flowers are gone anyhow. Even the begonias and winter pansies are hanging their heads under the weight of rainwater.

It's good, then, that I'm still sorting September photos, full of bright, warm, sunshiny flowers and critters.

Our neighbour's sunflowers.

Banana flower and green fruit. Beach Grove.

Flies and a beetle on goldenrod. Mud Bay Station.

Unidentified seed pods. Possibly peppergrass* (a Mustard). Mud Bay, growing through the  rip-rap.

Gumweed and Cabbage white butterfly. Mud Bay.

Tiny succulent, Beach Grove.

Orange-brown sandhill skipper* on sea rocket. Centennial Beach.

Pickleweed, Salicornia pacifica. The white "spines" are salt crystals. Salicornia gets rid of excess salt by moving it up to the tips of the stems, which turn red and eventually drop off. Mud Bay tide flats. 

Another pickleweed plant. This one is just starting to accumulate salt at the tips.

It's raining harder now. I wonder if it's going to rain all month long, to make up for our warm September.

*Thanks to biobabbler, Katie and Jodi for the IDs. (See discussion in comments.)

Out of a green chrysalis, a yellow butterfly

Almost three weeks ago, I posted a photo of a green caterpillar (... Pooping caterpillar) that was eating a kale leaf on my desk. I had it in a large canning jar, with a piece of cloth over the open mouth to provide air, but keep it contained. Three days later, it had formed a chrysalis on the underside of the cloth.

Chrysalis, day one.

I've been checking it several times a day; nothing was happening until this morning (Monday), when the colour seemed to be paler. Around noon, there were two small yellow patches on the sides.

But I was busy cooking and packing for our trip up the Sunshine Coast tomorrow, and I didn't watch closely enough. When I checked again, a little after 4 PM, the butterfly was out of the chrysalis, drying her wings.

Cabbage white butterfly, and old chrysalis.

The cast-off case.

Showing the split down the top front, where the new butterfly emerged.

The wings looked greenish at first, but as I watched, they lightened up and turned yellow. Most of the cabbage whites I see have lost enough feathers that they are mainly white.

Her wings still have creases where they were folded inside the chrysalis.

At first, she sat there, not moving, but when I got too close with the camera, she fluttered off, landing on my curtains, ...

One spot is visible. The others are hidden in the folded wings. She is a female; she has two spots on each wing.

... and then, on the hedge outside.

The wings are still crinkly, 10 minutes later. The two spots are visible, barely.

She sat there, on the leaf, not moving. Now, even when I brought Laurie to see her and tickled her antennae, trying to encourage her to open her wings for him, she sat perfectly still. (Good thing, too; the chickadees and sparrows were feeding under her shrub; if she had moved, she would have been dessert.)

Face view.

Green spotted eyes, and a coiled feeding tube. (Click for the full-size photo.)

I went back at intervals to see if she'd moved. For well over an hour, she rested in the sunshine. After supper, she had gone.

Happy flying, little one!

A perpetual astonishment*

In a patch of weedy grass beside the path to the beach at Boundary Bay, we chased a butterfly, and found these:

Dead nettles and grape hyacinth

The butterfly. Cabbage white, male. The females have two spots in the centre of each wing.

And a pair of amorous ladybugs. These are the Seven-spotted Ladybug (but one is a guy), Coccinella septempunctata.

A good start to the buggy season!

*Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment.  ~Ellis Peters

Good morning, Rock Flippers!

Today's the day!

I'll log back on as soon as a few links have come in. For now, here's a random photo, not under a rock:

Lemon yellow cabbage white butterfly, Point Roberts.

See you soon!

Almost looks like summer

Along the rocks bordering White Rock beach, the wild mustard plants, yellow and blue, are in full bloom. And the fall crop of Cabbage whites is happily flitting from flower to flower.

Cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, female (two spots on upper wing)

These butterflies are cold-tolerant; most of the other butterflies have gone into hibernation already.

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Looks like January is Moth Month

Back in October, as some of you may remember, I photographed a Cabbage White butterfly caterpillar turning into a chrysalis, and blogged about it here.

The adult butterfly should hatch sometime in the spring. One site I found suggested it may be as early as February. So it is time I started monitoring more closely.

I have had it outside, in a semi-sheltered location, still in the big salad bowl where it anchored itself on the lid, and with a couple of layers of open-weave cloth over it to keep out predators, but allow air circulation.


Here it is, as I last photographed it, at the end of September. It is anchored at the tail end (where the discarded skin is) and with a thread around the middle, and hanging upside down (judging by the position of the caterpillar when the transformation started).

I brought it inside tonight. Fingers crossed: hoping I would find it still alive and growing. I photographed it quickly, not wanting to expose it to a warm lamp any more than was necessary, bundled it up again, and put it back outside.

Here's what I found.


There are a few changes. It is no longer attached by the tail, but is swinging free on the thread around the waist, right side up. The old skin is still there, but no longer tied to the chrysalis.

It seems to me that the markings along the wings are more pronounced, and the bulges that I still think may be eyes are rounder and have a rim on one side.

Floating free as it is, I got a first look at the belly.


Some kind of apparatus there. Legs? Antennae? Mouth parts? Time will tell. The belly was tight against the lid in the fall, so I don't know whether it has changed since then.

And back to waiting again. I hope I have done it no damage; I figure the disturbance was no more than what would have been normal on the underside of a leaf in a bit of a wind.

We'll see.

Paint drying. For Jamon

... You asked for it: here it is. The chrysalis, as it hangs today.



Compare to a week ago:



Paint drying, it is.

I have moved it, plastic container and all, to a safe spot outside; he wasn't intended to spend the winter indoors.

Update on the "Astounding!" caterpillar

Well, that was quick! I didn't even get around to posting my photos on BugGuide, but we have an ID for yesterday's caterpillar. A local naturalist left a comment on that post, with a link. Thanks!

What I have is a Cabbage White butterfly, Pieris rapae. The link answers a few of my questions:

1. It has settled in for the duration; they hibernate over the winter, hatching out in early spring.
2. The reason it wouldn't eat any of the veg. I gave it was that I gave it no brassicas, except for the hedge mustard I found it on. I should have tried cabbage out of my fridge.
   
3. I won't be able to tell if it is male or female until it hatches. Males have one spot on each wing, females have two.

And it brings up another question: why does Wikipedia say that hedge mustard, Sisymbrium officinale, is not a brassica, while another site says that it is? (A UK site says,

Cultivated brassicas are the primary foodplants including cabbages, and Nasturtium (Tropaeoleum majus). Wild crucifers such as Wild Cabbage (Brassica oleracea), Charlock (Sinapis arvensis), Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale), Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata), Hoary Cress (Lepidium draba), and Wild Mignonette (Reseda lutea) are also used to a lesser degree.)

Hedge mustard as I found it.

And from a British site: same plant.