Thursday, December 4, 2014

Caterpillars that look like bird poop and an osmetarium


We walked out of the house to explore our new neighborhood last Tuesday and I noticed a pile of what appeared to be a giant pile of bird poop on our little lemon tree. I check on it pretty closely, since we're trying to figure out the best place to plant it in our yard, and I'm watching to see if it's getting enough light water, etc.

I was puzzled as to why a bird would get under our eves to somehow manage to poop on our tree, so I leaned over to look up to see if there was a bird's nest above it, or somewhere convenient to perch, and there wasn't. I leaned in and blew on the pile to assess it's wetness for cleaning purposes and out popped the caterpillar's osmeterium, a red fleshy organ apparently only possessed by swallowtail caterpillars. At least I didn't try to flick it off the lemon tree. Now we check on him every day! He grows really fast, we're waiting for him to turn into a chrysalis and then a butterfly!

Here he is with his osmeterium!




And here is 5 days later!




Finally, here's my amazing family feeding the animals on the farm on 15th avenue carrots the day after Thanksgiving!

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