My caterpillars are so hilariously individual, like they'd fit perfectly under the Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup triplets stereotype. The first was straight to the point, the second was so incredibly social and reactive, and the third has been utterly antisocial, minding her own business and avoiding me like the plague
Today the third and last caterpillar has roamed around and settled on a spot of my plant, unfortunately the process started after 4pm so it's likely I'll miss recording her change, but it was so funny to see her initially refusing to ride the spoon i used to move the other two around so easily
She also isn't very pleased with me i think, she had always kept to herself on the furthest away branch of my rue not sparing me a glance and complaining if i ever disturbed her anyhow
But the funniest: I put the two plants with chrysalis and the one with caterpillar inside because it's so very cold outside, and as a matter of awareness I'm checking to see if the caterpillar is still on her plant and not exploring my room (2:31am). She is in the plant, and most likely she's threading her silk as part of the greater plan™, however when i get closer to check she just stops what she's doing and pretends to be asleep LMAO
Sorry queen I didn't mean to invade your privacy, just making sure you won't crawl on my face in the middle of the night
there r many things i lov ab u & ur blog but i think my favourite is that your name is bee and my name is bug and i think thats really fun and neat :-)
!!!!! aaaAAAA U ARE SO KIND!!!
that's so adorable we are insect buddies ;0;!!!!!!!!!! I love that 🥹💗
Today my fourth butterfly Melinoe ecloded from her chrysalis!! This good girl was an only child, and thank the Gods as I'm sure my rue wouldn't have been able to feed more caterpillars (more info and thoughts under the cut)
(Ignore video quality pls, i had to choose stability this one time lmao even tho it's 1080p it looks so cheap)
Due to the weather and some real crazy wind storms that have happened early January, she along with my rue have been living in my room, prettt much her entire caterpillar phase, and i think it was the main reason why she has been the quickest to develop out of all caterpillars i had, taking 29 days from egg hatching to chrysaling, and then less than two weeks to come out as a fully developed King Swallowtail butterfly!
She was so good the entire process, in my previous post i have photos of her pretty much as a newborn, she wandered about all the branches of my rue and never once stepped outside to the furniture around (that's why i say caterpillars are such chill pets!!), she ate and pooped A LOT, and even set her chrysalis on the host plant (which is mad uncommon, none of the others stayed). I guess she really liked the warmth of my room lol
One thing i had the chance to experince again was hearing the characteristic noise of dry leaves being crushed, the sound (at least these) butterflies make while exiting their enclosure, their chrysalis by the end of the process is basically dry skin that's left behind, and i could hear it from my spot of the room while having earphones on!!!! If you listen closely you can also hear it on the video, right when she's stepping out!
I also got to learn new things, like seeing the absurd speed of which she developed from the day before hatching to the hatching day! Like, these photos are less than 12 hours apart from each other!
From seeing the first o thought "hey, she'll hatch sometime this week!", then i went to sleep and woke up to the certainty that today was the day!
And another thing i learned was that butterflies kind of swim (?) On some sort of liquid inside their chrysalis, this is not a fact nor scientifically proven, but during the wait for the hatch i could notice, through the transparent parts of the shell some bubbles that came from the depths and settled on the "horns" of the chrysalis, the highest point, like they were floating on some liquid. Eventually the liquid seemed to disappear and all that was left was air. One hypothesis i can think of is that the butterfly was on its last stages before the hatch, absorbing the remaining liquids of the chrysalis as, actually proven, when they come out there's no liquid
Really wish i had caught that on camera tho
Finally, i think this was my rue's last dance, the plant is what? 4 years old? Its leaves no longer grow strong as they used to, its stem is darkening up on some spots and yellowing on others, some parts no longer grow anything, and it has two little sapplings that are going well. I'm forever grateful to my plant, she's grown along with me all this time, a faithful company that has given life to 4 adorable babies, allowed me to witness the most beautiful cycle of life i didn't know i needed to see upclose. She still lives on its sapplings, and in my memory, and definetely will still be there on my next rue too, because there's no way I'm living without the possibility of raising my butterflies in the future!
To my Melinoe, who's already out there in the wild, and all the other butterflies that came before her, Bela, Daniela and Cassandra, I'll never tire of shouting to the wind how beautiful life can be when you give that little wobbly caterpillar a chance 💖🐛
Timelapse about 8x sped up of Daniela emerging from her chrysalis. This might be the best shoot i will ever shot in my life, even watching this stunning show with my own eyes I'm so glad to have this video (and the original, about 2:55 minutes) to watch and remember exactly what it was like
One thing I'll never forget though is that i set this plant on my desk next to a makeshift camera setup for the recording, and out of the blue i heard crackling, slow, loud and clear, Daniela breaking her little confinement, my queue to start recording
If you ever wondered what sound a butterfly makes coming out of the chrysalis: it's crunchy, the chrysalis is a literal dry shell that sounds like autumn leaves crackling as you step on them
Today the journey comes to an end, my journey raising these caterpillars that is
Cassandra (hatched on June 19th, released June 20th), Daniela (hatched and released on September 13th, but taken flight on the 14th) and Bela (hatched and freed on October 17th)
It's official, 100% of my caterpillars made it through and became butterflies 🥹
My windowsill feels so empty now, and i can't help but worry about them out there in the wild, but nature follows its course perfectly.
I'm already beyond happy to have taken care of them since day 1, maybe made their lives a tad bit easier, but above all I'm in awe to be able to witness one of the most amazing cycles a living being goes through
When i was little there was a butterfly chrysalis hanging from next our street gate. Everyday, when i was going and coming from school, i walked by it and wondered what would come out of it. One day the chrysalis was empty, the butterfly hatched and flew away before i could ever land eyes on it. More than 10 years later, about 5 months ago the universe gave me another chance, and now i return all these gifts back, fully grown and majestic after having witnesses their hunger, their metamorphosis, their emerging and their first flights
Can't wait for the next generation of caterpillars, rummaging through my plants now will always hold a tiny bit of hope they will be there 💛🦋🐛
