Orange Tip progress, II

Still eating & growing.
Now 21 mm. long.

A close escape for the still-to-hatch egg..... if the caterpillars encounter eggs or others of their species, they eat them!

Red in tooth & claw!





A change of lighting.





Any c&c welcome.

Thanks for looking,

Roger.

I presume you have removed temptation? It's a long fellow for sure! Those liquid blobs are quite remarkable - more so with the backlighting.

I haven't tried, David. It's so small &, I would imagine, very well stuck to the plant. The only result would be the demise of the egg anyway, so......ovum emptor!
The book says they grow to 31mm odd before pupating.
I got the impression (again, from the book) that it was only the early instars that bore the hairs with the liquid-tips.....

Thanks for the interest shown,

Roger.

Sorry, that should read "Caveat Ovum" !

R.

I presumed that you had more foodplant and so could rescue the stem bearing the egg - we've got bags of the stuff round here. I keep looking for caterpillars on them but no luck, even though there are orange tips flying.

Yes David, I do have a stock at home, so when the individual stem the caterpillar is on gets eaten/tatty, I can have a replacement to hand but there is still plenty in the verges.
To be honest, the rate of consumption by this individual (at least) is not fast at all. It's not exactly racing around, so I would imagine all the food it does consume goes into growth, putting on the millimetres! (26mm today.)
As far as eggs go, there are a lot about!
The last time I collected a couple of flower/seed heads, I had to check closely that there weren't any eggs on them, the first 3 or 4 I looked at certainly did!
Finding the caterpillars is quite a struggle! The camouflage is excellent!
Sometimes, even finding the particular one I have is not just a case of a cursory glance, yes there it is, move on.
I have to turn the stem around & look quite close, when they lie along the length of the stem, the green & white stripe of the body just makes them the disappear, even from quite up close!

All good fun & really fascinating!

Thanks for the interest shown,

Roger.

The second one is quite a study in greens and degrees of transparency - one could spend some time in meditative contemplation before it.

Sticky little critter! Wonderfully sharp

Thanks Gents, you're most kind!

Roger.