Wavy-lined Emerald pupa - Synchlora aerata Highland Park, Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA July 13, 2008
Here is the pupa. I had cut the flower stem and placed the flower in a cup of water in a rearing container. When the caterpillar had eaten the flower down to a nub, it pupated. It looks like the cat uses flower bits for camo while it's feeding, but then switches to green sepals fragments for the pupa. It looks so small and shriveled it's hard to imagine a moth is going to emerge -- my husband was convinced it was dead -- but seven days later, there was a beautiful adult emerald there on the side of the container.
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Contributed by Anita Gould on 17 December, 2010 - 11:19am |