More Small Plants + Insect Inspiration!
—with an Update on Our (No Longer Tiny) Little Friend, Part 2
We continue to see lots of little wildflower plants popping up in our yard, including lupine, chia and Mexican poppy. As you see below in my Perpetual Journal entry, Mexican poppy leaves remind me of carrot greens!
Regarding last year’s Perpetual Journal entry of a Cooper’s Hawk, we see and hear Cooper’s Hawks in our yard many times a week—and even saw a nest of downy white chicks last year!
🐛Update on Our (No Longer Tiny) Little Friend, Part 2
Previously on Paula Borchardt ~ Visual Storyteller, I wrote about a Queen Butterfly larva (caterpillar), a.k.a. our Tiny Little Friend, that Hubby & I watched grow from only 0.3” long to a ginormous 1.5” in length. We rechristened our no-longer-tiny-little-friend as Big Boy/Go Girl (BB/GG) but much to our consternation, BB/GG started roaming off-world, leaving its host milkweed plant to either look for more food (it had eaten almost all the leaves on its host plant) or look for a place to pupate (turn into a chrysalis). We did what any reasonable person would do………
And now, the exciting conclusion of our story:
………and that same day (Friday 1/26/24) we ran out and purchased 3 more milkweed plants for BB/GG. We clustered the plants together and encouraged BB/GG to explore the new milkweeds. Later that day, we found BB/GG happily (we assume) munching away on the leaves of one of the new milkweeds!
The next day (Saturday 1/27/24) BB/GG stretched out on the underside of the plant pot rim of its new milkweed. BB/GG seemed shorter and we weren’t sure what was going on—was it just chillin’ like a villian, or was it up to something else???
On Sunday 1/28/24, BB/GG explored the rim of its new milkweed’s pot, returned to its milkweed salad bar for a while, and by 12:30 p.m. appeared to be forming a silk mat for a chrysalis(!!!!!) on the plant pot rim.
At that point we set up our cameras and tripods, ready to record the Main Event—the transformation of BB/GG from caterpillar to chrysalis—and I volunteered for Larva Patrol. Every 5 minutes (or less!) for the rest of the afternoon I looked out the window to check BB/GG’s status. Around 2:30 p.m. it hung upside down from its silk mat, in the “J” shape known to be a precursor for becoming a chrysalis (photo on left below)!
On Monday 1/29/24, BB/GG was still in a “J” shape in the morning. However, around 2:00 p.m. we started seeing lots of changes: BB/GG’s front tubercles were limp, BB/GG started wiggling more and then rapidly expanding and contracting (photo on right below)!
The final sign that BB/GG was about to turn into a chrysalis was when it straightened out from a “J” shape to an “I” shape. Within a minute of that event, we saw BB/GG start to shed its stripey caterpillar skin. It wriggled out of its old skin to reveal the light green chrysalis beneath. We watched BB/GG transform from a stripey “J” shaped caterpillar (larva) to a green chrysalis (pupa) in just over 3 minutes!!!!!! 😲
Here are photos of our fresh, new, beautiful, perfect friend 😍—about 1 minute after pupation, and then about an hour later. Although BB/GG was 1.5” long as a caterpillar, as a chrysalis BB/GG is only 0.625” long! You can see the wings on the left side of the chrysalis.
Watching a caterpillar transform into a chrysalis was AMAZING—that’s the first time either Hubby or I have had the privilege of seeing that with our own eyeballs! We were so excited and inspired to be able to witness this miracle! 🥰
Seeing this transformation reminded me of a quote I read recently:
“Every once in a while, the curtain of the ordinary parts and we touch the miraculous.”
- Maria Popova
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You captured it. One step for BB/GG—a giant leap for creation!
Amazing to see the chrysalis!