We find this guy

While driving through the parking lot at PetCo, Marcy spots this guy walking across. He is one of the ugliest caterpillars we've ever seen. He looks like a cross between a slug and a catfish.

Turns out, he is an old Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, and he cocoons within the day.

He, too, will be hatching next spring!

All have coccooned and are in the fridge

Our entomologist sent an e-mail saying that some or her polyphemuses (pl?) hatched after just two weeks in the cocoon. She advised that we unstick them from the cage and put them in a brown paper bag in the fridge till mid October. Those guys were really stuck on there! One made its cocoon on the side of the yogurt container we were using to hold the birch twigs, and you can see the nutrition label on it!

Three coccoon!

We hired a pet sitter while we went up north for five days. Got back and three had decided to spin. One is silky, and at the top of the cage. The two others chose to wrap themselves in leaves, one loose and one attached to the bottom of the cage. Really a surprise!

About the size of a thumb

And I swear, every time I lift the lid to put more birch leaves in, they all turn to look at me. It's a little freaky.

Our second cage

Having a cage that actually has a supportive structure - wow - what a difference that makes! Our new cage is like a Loft apartment and turns out pretty swanky. We had a hard time finding plant saucers. No one sells them individually any more.

Our first cage

Our first cage is better in form than in function. We got a black mesh and circled it around a bunch of times. We thought this would hold it up, but were wrong. A strong wind and a heavy rain both contributed to its collapse. My husband, MacGyver incarnate, rigged a temporary hold in a trash can. But this actually meant that during a heavy rain, it held water, and one of our larger caterpillars drowned. One to cage two.

Mourning Cloak hatches/caterpillars take over planet

Our Mourning Cloak hatched and is gorgeous. She sticks around for a while, opening and closing her wings like a test flight. She is in full display mode. And the polyphemus caterpillars are going through leaves like crazy. They're fat and lime green. In the photo, that's one on top of the quarter. It might eat the quarter.

Twice their size

They are growing very quickly. Despite 95 degree weather, they continue to eat, poop and grow. There are four of them in this photo - look on the leaves on the left.

New leaves

We added new birch leaves today. We will see if all 11 move over to the new leaves, or if they need a little help.

Status Quo

Not much has happened. They might have grown a little bit. We decide that a quarter will be our growth guide. They seem to just spend their lives eating. There are two caterpillars in this picture. They're lime green.

Day one

We picked up our polyphemus moth caterpillars from Margot today. We were suprised to find our habitat had a Mourning Cloak cryssalis in it. We thought we had released that caterpillar!

Magot is an entomologist at the University of Minnesota. She gave us 11 tiny caterpillars, less than 1 cm long, with some birch leaves to eat. We hope they will do well.