Caterpillar Conundrum, Part 1
—Trying to Identify Mystery Eggs and Larvae
Since the end of July, Hubby & I have seen some “mystery” eggs and larvae (caterpillars) on our Desert Senna. The eggs are small (≤ 1mm long) and a rounded diamond shape. The caterpillars look fuzzy and are cleverly camouflaged in a “Desert Senna green” color. Even though I hadn’t identified these eggs and larvae (yet!), I had to illustrate them for my Perpetual Journal because they’re definitely cool (fact, not opinion!).
I was able to identify these down to the family* level: the butterfly family Pieridae (Whites, Sulphurs, and Yellows). Pieridae only contains about 1,100 species worldwide so that really helps narrow down the identification! 🤣
* Taxonomy
In case you don’t remember your high school biology lesson about taxonomy (classification of organisms), the eight levels of taxonomy from broadest to most specific are:
Domain
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
So as you see, I identified these eggs & larvae down to the 6th of 8 levels of specificity (go, me!). And yes, I have those levels, in order, permanently burned into my brain!
We were hoping that the larvae would pupate (turn into chrysalises), which would definitely help with our ID’ing, but the 10+ “greenies” (as I dubbed these larvae) that we’d seen up to this point disappeared after growing to about an inch long.
Did our greenies disappear because they were eaten? Or pass due to other causes? Or wander off-world to pupate? Or even disapparate?
What ARE these mystery eggs and larvae? Stay tuned—my post next week may perhaps 😊 provide the answer to this burning question!
To answer a possibly less burning question: yes, we continue to see Western Banded Geckos in our garage and on our patio. They’re definitely little cuties! 😍
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I’m definitely following the mystery while appreciating the close up look at tiny life adventures on your Desert Senna. Thank you for that and, also, reminding me of the eight levels of Taxonomy which bounce around in disorderly fashion among my brain cells.