I first blogged this over at the
other blog, and I managed to forget to take a picture of an inch-worm that adopted us. I had harvested some mesquite nibbles for the
hubbardi bunch and the little critter caught a ride and found itself in with a bunch of non-geometers. So while I forgot to take its picture, it thrived. Then it started to look pretty bad and I felt terrible and was certain that, along with ~40 other caterpillars this season, it had died. It turned this bizarre shade of teal blue on one end and darkened and instead of being a long, juicy inch-and-a-smidge long... it was barely half an inch long.
But then it turned into a pupa. How ridiculously awesome! Picture from 18 September, after two days of a sickly looking caterpillar.
Interestingly enough, it started out copper on the bum and deep, emerald green on the wing casing - and shrank a bit as it turned more coppery all over. This first picture was taken on 25 September.
26 September! We're fairly certain that this is
Rindgea cyda, the Mesquite Looper. Otherwise it's likely
Rindgea s-signata.
And the empty case with a wandering
hubbardi...
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