In the last post, I commented about trying to tell the difference between a moth and a butterfly. In furthering up my studies, I have since discovered one can distinguish between the two during the pupa stage (but not always) and only sometimes during the caterpillar stage. So much to learn, so little time to learn it all.

Couple of weeks ago I went to the local mom and pop feed store for some chicken nourishment. At the front of their parking curbs were all these beautiful in bloom flowers.  Known for the native plants and needing some new color in my life, I had a quick looky loo.  A plant aficionado I am not but I can read the plant pots. Reading milkweed upon the pot I snatched this beauty up as milkweeds are hard to come by and the butterflies love them.  Especially the monarch butterflies. Caterpillars, which there were gobs of all over every plant in all shapes and sizes, were free of charge.  Excellent! Pretty plant for me, free snacks for chickens.

A quick re-pot into something much more pleasant on the eyes and with more room for plant growth, the new found deck beauty was all set. Other than the coral honeysuckle, all the other plants, both volunteer native and bought native are not orange in color.  Oh wait, the lantana is orange.  But as it never blooms and looks like death, it is not counted.

A few days later while admiring this new beauty I noticed many leaves had been feasted upon and were invaded with aphids.  Oh, those drated aphids.  They have been plaguing my garden since way back when, a time way before the Kid even.  They leave a sticky mess on the leaves, damage the plant from fresh growth, and worse yet are carries of plant viruses.  The best way to kill them is to smush them between two fingers or invest in an arsenal of ladybugs.  Having no ladybugs to invest in, I smushed until my fingers were stained yellow.

During the attack on aphids, this leaf chomping caterpillar was seen happily chomping on of the flower buds.  All that was left of the bud was the stem!  Upon further inspection, it became visible that many of the buds had been chomped away along with several sections of new leaves.

At this rate, these five chompers would have eaten the entire plant in just a few weeks. Poor plant can’t even grow new leaves to compensate for that of which were eaten.  Not to mention, if left to their devices there would not be any pretty flowers either. Not too large in size yet, he and his other party goers were given the boot.  Dang, I just wanted a simple plant for the monarch butterflies to have when then migrated thru. Why does everything in nature have to be so destructive?

Later that evening when reading on how to care for milkweed in preparation to all the fabulous butterflies that would arrive, I discovered something horrifying.  Horrifically horrifying.  Single-handedly, I had killed close to a dozen monarch butterfly caterpillars!  AHH!!! How irresponsible of me not to have know.  The thing I was trying to save, I had killed.  Oh, the shame.

Luckily for me about a week later there was lots of evidence of caterpillars again.  Where did they come from as monarchs are not currently on migration?  Apparently, they lay their eggs within the plant where ever they are grown and the plants travel with caterpillar eggs to their new destinations. With this new found knowledge I took great appreciation in watching the workings of these leave chompers.  My goodness.  They literally just eat from the moment they are hatched to the moment they chrysalis.  Amazing.  Have to say I am a little jealous as there are plenty of days where I would just love to eat and eat.

As it turns out they do not just absently eat.  They eat with a methodical neatness at a high rate of speed.  The above video is 16X the normal speed filmed. What took 5:22 minutes to record and watch in rapt fascination is now just a 1:20 minute clip.  If humans ate that quickly we would be compared with pigs in a pen.  Oink, slurp, snort.

Upon watching a caterpillar devour this bud, I looked for new signs of eating at every possible moment.  Most times the signs were seen but not the action.  Having noticed this fresh dropping, I soon discovered the doer. Man oh man did I strike it rich, too.  He was a monster and he was still eating.  Quickly grabbing a comfortable seat, I took to recording.

Over a series of video and just over 20 minutes, I watched a leaf disappear before my eyes.  Winds in the 30mph gusts did not deter the affair.  Humans within a 5 foot space did not deter the affair.  It was an absolutely incredible moment.  My only regret is that my video recording skills are less than BBC documentary level. Learning to cut and splice videos for smooth transitions is a learned skill and probably requires more power than my free video maker can accomplish.  But hey, you get the picture, right?

Life for this leaf started out this morning as a leaf the length of my index finger (3″).  By the time the leaf chomper had his fill, the leaf left was a tidbit.  A speck. A pinch.

Seriously, I don’t know how even to describe something this small in terms of leave.  It is just the stem and a bit.

And while I am trying to best photograph this chomped remains, I can see through the leaves the caterpillar on his next found feast. Chomp, chomp, chomp.