Sunday, July 4, 2010

Pupating Caterpillers


This time of the year, I don't have time during the day to take pictures of the living things I love. After my work is over, I rush to the woods while it is still light to manage taking several photos.
I only have about one hour to stroll around and find out how the creatures are doing. It is sometimes too dark for photographing, but very often I can encounter exciting events and animals that I can never see under the hot and bright sunlight.
One of such encounters was pupating caterpillars. They hung upsidedown from a fense surrounding a pond. They waited for the metamorphosis within their body to take place, slowly shedding the skin.
It was getting dark and the forest was becoming silent, which meant that predators were becoming inactive.
I found four of such pupating caterpillars almost in synchrony. The photo is a pupating Argynnis paphia.

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