Prepupa Spicebush (complimentary pattern alterations!)
I had a customer request for a Prepupa Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly Caterpillar! I've wanted to make one in these colors forever, so I was tickled I had a chance!
Background:
If you didn't know, some caterpillars change looks drastically from one instar to the next (when they molt) and then sometimes, if all factors are just right (temperature, weather, diet, etc.) they can take on a bright color for just a few hours before they molt* into their pupa state to become a chrysalis to develop into a butterfly. If you see a caterpillar in the wild in these special last-hurrah colors, you are very lucky!
*Just a quick note here to mention that not all caterpillars (moth or butterfly) molt into a pupa state. Some spin their enclosures (butterfly: chrysalis; moth: cocoon) out of a silk thread they produce themselves and others build their enclosure by gluing tiny bits of dead leaves, etc. together with a similar substance (or they steal bits of spider web! to tape it all up!). Some …
Background:
If you didn't know, some caterpillars change looks drastically from one instar to the next (when they molt) and then sometimes, if all factors are just right (temperature, weather, diet, etc.) they can take on a bright color for just a few hours before they molt* into their pupa state to become a chrysalis to develop into a butterfly. If you see a caterpillar in the wild in these special last-hurrah colors, you are very lucky!
*Just a quick note here to mention that not all caterpillars (moth or butterfly) molt into a pupa state. Some spin their enclosures (butterfly: chrysalis; moth: cocoon) out of a silk thread they produce themselves and others build their enclosure by gluing tiny bits of dead leaves, etc. together with a similar substance (or they steal bits of spider web! to tape it all up!). Some …
