Redemption

A few days ago, I blipped a common grass blue butterfly, which I was pretty sure had been laying eggs on the hardenbergia I planted a few weeks ago.

I was right. 

This caterpillar is about 1 and a half cms long - very small.   But their behavior is really interesting.  When they hatch out they eat the egg casing, as do most butterfly larvae, and then it starts to spin silk, and encases itself in the leaves of the plant.  They eat the leaves and new shoots.  When it's eaten itself out of house and home, so to speak, it moves onto a bigger leaf, and folds that around itself, and so the process goes until it pupates.  It only eats at night which makes it very hard to see, and most of its body is hidden anyway.

When I saw the folded over leaf I gently prized it apart, and sure enough, there was the little 'pillar.  I felt bad about exposing it, but I needn't have worried because when I went back half an hour later, it had moved to a new leaf and made a new home. (See extras).

These tiny butterflies are really common, but as one person said to me, they won't stay common unless people plant their food plants and understand that all this chomping can make the plant look a little ragged.  My plant is growing extremely strongly, so I have no problems with sharing it with some pretty little blue butterflies.

I feel ever so much better today - it's a lot cooler and we had a terrific Blipmeet lunch with Hrubsie today.  Thanks so much for all your birthday greetings - that cheered me up as well.  It wasn't a significant birthday, but next year will be - I'll be ever so old.  I might have a party, but then again, I might not - too much work.