Where Have All the Caterpillars Gone?

Everything is quiet due to the sudden absence of caterpillars.

It’s been a buzz of activity this past week with upwards to 40 caterpillars in my atrium. I step out and there’s a feeling of energy in the air.  I move in for a better look and find the insect version of a Los Angeles freeway during rush hour.  I’m a giant and have to tread lightly because caterpillars go on walkabouts.  You have to walk through my atrium to exit the front door of my house so when the walkabouts start the family goes on alert.  Look down!  Watch where you’re walking!

Then one day I step into the atrium and the air feels different.  POOF!  They’re gone. Vanished into thin air.  It’s quiet.

But they’re not really gone.  The caterpillars have just moved onto the next phase of their life – the final molt, the creation of their chrysalis, pupation to be scientifically correct.  Of course I know this now, I’m in my 5th year of raising butterflies, but I didn’t the first time.  And that sudden change of energy is quite a phenomenon.

So where do they go?  The answer – anywhere.  Literally.  There appears to be no rhyme or reason, no logical explanation, no scientifically explained criteria (that I agree with) for finding “the best spot” to pupate.  If you’re looking down, look up.  If you’re looking near, look far.  Look forward, look back.  If you’re looking in nearby plants, look on your fence, your patio furniture, your watering can, your statuary, your neighbor’s yard.  Soon I will show you the wide variety of places considered “the best spot”, but for now you’ll just have to trust me on this.

The key is to find the caterpillar right before it pupates because it’s still a caterpillar with colors that are relatively easy to spot.  More importantly the caterpillar will be in a “J” position, hanging upside down from a silk button that it spun and fastened itself too.  The caterpillar stays perfectly still in this “J” position for 12-16 hours so there’s an entire day to find it!

The search becomes more difficult, albeit not impossible, if you miss the “J” stage.  In most cases “the best spot” is a plant, but the jade green chrysalis the caterpillar becomes blends in with foliage.  I’ve stared at a plant for a lengthy period of time only to find a chrysalis right in front of my face.  Or I’ll finally locate one and then be unable to find it again the next day.  It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack and then remembering where the needle is.  Can you locate the chrysalis in the photo below?

But I don’t give up.  Instead, I wait about 10 days and then resume my search.  Then the chrysalis starts to darken and stand out against the green leaves of the plant it’s hanging from.  The pattern of the butterfly wings shine from within.  It is almost butterfly time.  And this is the main reason for finding the chrysalis, to watch the final transformation, the eclose, the emergence of a beautiful butterfly.

Still I may never find the caterpillar/chrysalis.  Some groups of caterpillars select well hidden spots while others feel safe in the open.  But while I may miss the eclose I usually do not miss the newly hatched butterfly.  Still I check my atrium daily.  Sometimes I hear the butterfly rustling around in the foliage before I see it.  I may find it hanging from its chrysalis drying and plumping up its wings.  Or it may be crawling away from its chrysalis, up into the world, waiting on higher ground for its wings to dry enough to attempt flight.  I may catch it out of the corner of my eye making one or more tenuous test flights.  During these initial hours I can even get the butterfly to crawl onto my finger, something I do if the butterfly is about to encounter trouble such as a spider web or my cat, something the new butterfly can’t escape from quickly.  And for about a week I’ll be blessed daily with one or more new butterflies.  And then there’s no more and that generation draws to a close.

Days, weeks or even months later I may finally find the chrysalis, or rather what’s left of it.  I think wow, how did I miss that.  And I leave the chrysalis there as a symbol of life and the power of change and a reminder that sometimes it’s the most obvious that escapes us.