Lophocampa maculata - Development Sequence and observations - Lophocampa maculata Elkton, Douglas County, Oregon, USA September 19, 2011
09-19-11: I watched yesterday's exploring cat, on an off, for about ½ an hour. It was on walkabout - quite different than simple wandering, walkabout has a definite urgency to it. I prepared it a private container, and it continued walkabout all day. For ID purposes, I took a few photos. It was still on walkabout when I went to bed. The center bottom image shows what I discovered this morning - the cocoon had just been started.. I periodically photographed it until the cocoon was finished. This cat will now be referred to as CC3. For ID purposes, I also created a montage of the cat beside its completed cocoon. Like CC1 and CC2, CC3 did not eat or frass before pupating.
Of note: yesterday I was curious if the next cat to molt would be the remaining one with only a single spot; CC3 had a full line of black dorsal spots - guess they pupate when they're ready.
The remaining four cats seem content, at the moment, to remain cats. All were sitting on big-leaf maple doing what they do third best - sitting there. Earlier, they had done what they do first and second best - eating and frassing. Again, quite a bit of maple was consumed. Plum was not touched. No one stirred when I removed them from the container, no one took the opportunity to make a break for it while I cleaned their container, and no one stirred after I returned them to their container. Nevertheless, I suspect I may have seven pupa by the end of the week.
Images of this individual: tag all Contributed by Phil Huntley-Franck on 11 October, 2011 - 1:55pm Last updated 23 October, 2011 - 3:32pm |