Meet Catty

I would like to introduce you to our new pet, Catty the Caterpillar. We have had him for about a week. When I first brought him in he was only about 1" long.  Now he is probably close to 2".  This morning when I fed him he was plump and looking pretty juicy.  His black stripes had a little glow to them...they looked like velvet.  I am hoping this is an indication that he will soon form a chrysalis (cacoon) and go into hiding. He will stay in his cocoon for about 2 weeks and when he reappears he will be a beautiful Monarch butterfly... and then I should really be able to tell you if he is a he or a she...maybe.

See his little white boots.  Apparently those are called prolegs (the 'fake' legs).  Why would a caterpillar have 'fake' legs... I have no idea?  I do know that he actually has three pairs of legs and the set that are closer to his head he uses to pull food in. 

See... How cool is that?  I know pretty cool huh.

We keep Catty in a small container built for bug hording.  I have to admit that having Catty in the house has made me a little crazy.  Crazy in a good way, not in the "what am I doing, there is a bug in my house, kind of way".  I check on him everytime I walk by to see what he is up to.  He really is a fun little guy.  I have also found myself checking the milkweed plant outside everyday when I go to get him a new leaf to eat.  I have found eight additional caterpillars.  I have only taken two more captive, I just don't know where I would keep the other six (maybe I will find a bug house big enough, if I can talk Keith into it?).  The other two are much smaller then Catty.  One is itty bitty, not even 1/2" long and the other is about 3/4" inch long.



All of these pictures were taken about 4 days ago and he has grown quite a bit in those few days. The first four pictures were taken with a macro filter so I could catch every detail - he appears much larger in those pictures then he really is.

This is the second caterpillar that we have captured.  The first one (which we found on Ahliana's birthday) cocooned so quickly after we captured it that we did not get to watch it grow.  I mean it cocooned within 30 minutes of us finding it.  The cacoon process is slow but really cool too...so stay posted for some more caterpillar/ cocoon/ butterfly pics.

Thank you Shellie!!  This caterpillar/ butterfly experience has been amazing for both Ahliana and me!!