J Hooked

I spotted this J hooked caterpillar about 2 p.m. on September 4th. I monitored it closely for a few hours. Every 20 minutes I looked at it. Things were not changing much. I did not touch the caterpillar.

I finally gave up around 8 p.m. I expected to see the completed pupa in the morning.Look what I found at 5:30 a.m. September 5th!

The head of the caterpillar had split open. A white fuzz had appeared.

(I also learned that taking this kind of photo is hard. I was using a flashlight to illuminate the area.)

The Light of Day

Here is the same caterpillar at about 8:30 a.m. Daylight made it much easier to observe many details.

It became clear that this caterpillar had died. No further progress was made.

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