On 8/27/2008 @ 7:20 am, which is Day 9 for the eggs, I noticed what I thought to be a small green thing in our container. It was so small and I was half awake so I thought I was seeing things. Sure enough IT WAS A BABY!

When I looked over at the clusters on the screen, there was the same thing. Within a couple of hours, it seems most of them on the screens had hatched. The ones in the container did just as well yet a lot of eggs were still not hatched. The ones on the screen seemed to hatch quicker. Around 10 am I went outside to look and most of them on the screen had fledged. I looked up and they were all off to begin life just like the little spiders in Charlotte's Web. There was a Milkweed Assassin Bug that I had to scare off a couple of times but I could only do so much. I felt like a protective mother.

Aren't they so cute!

Adorable!

By the end of the day, all of the caterpillars in our container began eating voraciously. I put Sweetgum leaves in the container which is one of the leaf variations that they eat.

On 8/28/2008 (today) I have been watching them carefully and knew I was going to have to clean out their container. They grew overnight. In the next six months they will eat like crazy and grow quickly into transparent green and beautifully marked caterpillars. There was a lot of feces, pardon the expression. My goodness AND so much had been eaten!

How cute is this picture?

I love these pictures!! I am a happy surrogate mommy.

I will keep you all posted. Enjoy the pics. I wish I could name them!!

Happy Biology! Thank you Creator!

Josie