Having them in an easily accessible place not too far from home was very convenient for me. I visited the plants every few days to take snapshots, hoping to eventually capture the winged adult emerging from the pupal case.
The photos in this post were not of the same individual. They were taken over a few months. As a newbie to butterflies and hawkmoths at that time, it did not cross my mind that birds and other animals would prey on the subjects I was photographing. Some of the caterpillars died when they were a few days old, other bigger ones just disappeared. But I was very happy to have witnessed a few of them turn into adults.
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| Day 1. Eggs were laid mostly singly on the underside of leaves and flowers of the host plant. |
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| Day 4~5. The very young caterpillars ate the flowers too! At least 50% of them do not make it past this stage. |
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| Day 5~6. Most hawkmoth caterpillars have a horn at the rear end. It was still thin and long at this stage. |
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| Day 11. As it grew, the eyespots near the head became more prominent. |
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| Day 15~16. Notice how the thin and long tail had become a bulbous stump. The folds of skin on the body allowed for growth. At this stage, it was about 7 to 8cm long. |
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| Caterpillars have tiny hooks at the base of the so-called false legs. They help the caterpillar in walking and climbing. |
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| Caterpillar poop. Every single piece has the same structure, regardless of size. |
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| Day 17~19. It had grown to about 10cm and was very round and fat. It was an eating machine, consuming about 1 leaf every 25 minutes! |
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| Day 20. When ready to pupate, it looked for a safe hiding place among the leaf debris at the base of the plant. The body started to shrink. Unlike butterflies, moths would spin silk around themselves before transforming into a pupa. |
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| Day 23. Pupation was complete. The pupa would wriggle violently if touched. |
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| Day 32. The pupal case had darkened, especially the wing case. The patterns of the wings can be seen. |
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| Day 33. The adult emerged from the pupal case. |
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| It immediately climbed up the plant. It was out of the case and up the plant in less than 2 minutes. The wings were small and wet and it was not ready to fly yet. |
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| It took about 45 minutes for the wings to be fully pumped with fluids. It stayed like this for another 4 hours before I decided to call it a day. It was gone the next morning. |
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| Milky liquid left in the pupal case. |
Hint: To witness this amazing metamorphosis,
1. you must be willing to sacrifice the looks of your plants. The caterpillars eat a lot and can make your plants go bald by the time they turn into pupae. However, you will be well rewarded with softer new leaves very quickly.
2. it is advisable to throw a mesh or something similar over your plants to prevent the caterpillars from becoming bird food. In my case, I secure the base too to prevent nocturnal predators from climbing up the plant because I have had pupae disappear too!
UPDATE
Thanks to a reader of this post, Klaus Schoenwiese, I got to know of a North American species which looks very similar to this moth. At first glance, you would have thought that they were the same.
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| Pandora Spinx moth in NY. Photo taken by Klaus Schoenwiese. |
This one does not have the dark banding and spot on the edge of the wings nearest to the head. Thank you, Klaus!