A few weeks ago, the Free-Ride family welcomed some new members.
About 14 new members (although it can be hard to get an accurate count when they’re squirming around).
Right now their main interests are eating, growing, and climbing on their siblings to find more to eat. Their growth is pretty alarming in its rapidity (especially since we’ve just moved them to the largest wide-mouth jar we have).
We were waiting for their arrival for a good long while. Now that they’re here, we’re trying to enjoy the days before they grow up and have kids of their own.
Coolio! Are you going to let them pupate in the jar?
Any idea which species of caterpillar these are? I don’t know nearly enough other than that by definition they need to be in order Lepidoptera.
(And on a completely different topic are we going to get your take on the entire Merck fake journal scandal- http://blog.bioethics.net/2009/05/merck-makes-phony-peerreview-journal/ ?)
I’ll be watching this with interest. Always seemed like a neat thing to do.
Friend who raises butterflies from caterpillars says they can be very delicate. Just touching one may kill it. So treat yours with care.