New Instar - _TNY_4179
Today, me and the family arrived at my mother-in-law's house outside Härnösand, Sweden (about 500 km / 300 miles north of our place) and she had a wonderful surprise for me.
A old world swallowtail (Papilio machaon) had laid eggs on her purple angelica (Angelica gigas) and they had hatched into a whole bunch of caterpillars which were happily munching away at the leaves.
She had even fashioned a sort of cover for the Angelica to protect the caterpillars from birds so that they would still be around when we arrived.
There were a whole bunch of them out there, both in the first instar form (like in this shot: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51629568129/) and some which had moulted into the second instar form like the one here.
Eventually, they will hopefully look like this: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/29253287772/ and of course reach adulthood next year.
This is the first time I've come across the second instar form so it was a real pleasure shooting them.
New Instar - _TNY_4179
Today, me and the family arrived at my mother-in-law's house outside Härnösand, Sweden (about 500 km / 300 miles north of our place) and she had a wonderful surprise for me.
A old world swallowtail (Papilio machaon) had laid eggs on her purple angelica (Angelica gigas) and they had hatched into a whole bunch of caterpillars which were happily munching away at the leaves.
She had even fashioned a sort of cover for the Angelica to protect the caterpillars from birds so that they would still be around when we arrived.
There were a whole bunch of them out there, both in the first instar form (like in this shot: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51629568129/) and some which had moulted into the second instar form like the one here.
Eventually, they will hopefully look like this: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/29253287772/ and of course reach adulthood next year.
This is the first time I've come across the second instar form so it was a real pleasure shooting them.