My wife was picking some flowers from a garden plant and she suddenly called me to show this. She was initially quite afraid to look at this but then I told her that it is harmless from distance and not to touch or disturb it. Both my mother and wife lack knowledge on all these things. Being a biology student during my school days, I have had an interest in observing these natural beauties and learning more about them. I have always told my mom and wife the importance of these caterpillars and how beautiful their transformation is. If we have these things around us then we have to be proud that the vegetation we live in is a healthy one.

I have seen these Caterpillars in pictures and videos on how they feed and transform into a beautiful moth or butterfly. But this is the first time I'm witnessing this too close. I spent almost half an hour to one hour examining this and also taking some photos on my phone. I made sure it shouldn't be disturbed by any chance.

My mother and wife have the habit of plucking flowers every day from this plant. After seeing this, my mom asked me to cut it off and throw it somewhere. But instead, I told her not to come near this for the next two days so that is fully ready to get transformed. We cannot do anything much in person to save nature but staying away from it or not disturbing it would be of great help anyways.

I also noticed lots of poop below the place where the Caterpiller was feeding. We observed it for two days and I was also able to see the growth happening rapidly and that explains why there were lots of poop below its feeding ground. It was indeed fascinating to witness this great transformation event. I was expecting to see some traces after the transformation happened but there was nothing left there except the poop the following day. I did a thorough search through the plant to confirm if it was found somewhere else but it was gone already.

There is also a high possibility that some birds might have had this as their prey. I have read that more than 60 percent of these caterpillars become prey for either birds or other predators. I really wish it survived and transformed into a moth. Near my habitat, I have seen birds feeding on lizards and other insects they find here. I have a King Fisher family living near my house that frequently feeds on bugs. I hope this caterpillar is safe somewhere and was not consumed by any of its predators. But anyways the game between Prey and Predators is not an easy thing to understand. It is a beauty of nature.

PS: I'm not an expert photographer but I tried to make use of the features that I had on my phone (POCO X3) to capture these images. Mostly it was using the macro lens the phone had, the clarity would have been a little better.

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Posted with STEMGeeks