The sun was already up when I first rolled off the bed this morning. But it was still too early and the cats indulged me for another 40 minutes.
Then I went out to get pictures of the clouds and to check on “my” caterpillars. It’s become very confusing, keeping track of those guys as they seem to move around a lot, fast!
Tiny 
Small Fry 
Little Guy
This is “Big Guy”.
The process from egg to butterfly takes about 30 days.
You can see an egg on the right next to “Tiny”.
“Tiny” was really very, very small even though the photograph makes him look the same size as “Small Fry”. I was quite proud that I noticed him in my daily dance around the milkweed.
In a previous post, I had started numbering these little fellows but I had to abandon that idea because I couldn’t figure out whether the small ones disappeared or just got big.
And if they did, what happened to the other “Big Guy”?
So I’ve just been doing a general headcount.
Last night it was three small and one big.
But no chrysalises, so I’m not sure what’s happening.
Our population has increased many fold over previous years, so we are hoping there will be at least some butterflies.
The occasional flash of orange appears past my window but I’ve stopped running out as they are almost impossible to catch up with. At least by this amateur.
On the internet I read that spiders eat these caterpillars, but it’s hard to picture where this chap would even fit a caterpillar foot, never mind the whole thing. He was on the next leaf.
There was also this “crane fly”?
Yesterday when I was fighting with the wretched vine again, I was put off when I noticed these guys queuing at the end of a stalk. I decided I didn’t require an introduction. As far as I can find out, they are assassin bugs and it did suggest one should avoid getting bitten by one. Shan’t experiment.
Not sure about him.
These little “suckers” are harder to avoid!
There was a heavy dew, so I retreated and took pictures of wet grass instead.
If you knit little hats for the caterpillars you could keep track that way!
Now there’s a thought…little mini needles. I could use cat hair….
They may be allergic to cat hair!
A little allergy test maybe…
Beautiful! 🙂
I have no idea how you could distinguish between the caterpillars … what if the little guy is the big guy tomorrow, and there is a new little guy in the old little guy’s place … but then, like you’ve said, what happened to the big guy (certainly not eaten by that “little-stomach” spider 😄).
Very interesting …