Of the 4 stages of the butterfly's life cycle, the most commonly seen is the butterfly itself in it's adult form, the second is the caterpillar, the third is the pupa, and the fourth is the eggs. I've only seen butterfly eggs once and I very rarely see pupas at all. So, imagine my surprise on seeing all these pupas one one of the Rukam Asam near my home! Yes, I saw all of these on one plant. As you can imagine, its leaves were rather holey.
Yup, that's all on one tree. Four in total. The second one I fear is dead. The mortality rate for pupas is rather high I'm afraid. When my primary school tried raising them, all but one died. There was apparently a little fly that drilled holes in the pupa to eat it. (Morbid yes, but facts are facts) I hope this hasn't happened to the second one but I seriously doubt it's alive. From the markings these appear to be the pupa of leopard butterflies and they should be green.
Which brings me to the first one. It's not green. It's black and red and seems quite alive. I've never seen this before and I suspect it means the butterfly is almost fully formed and will emerged soon. I've been checking it every day since but it hasn't changed. I really hope it becomes a butterfly.
As for the last two, now these are pupas that I've never seen. They are empty pupas! The success stories that have become butterflies and left these empty shells behind. Perhaps I've seen them flying around. Who can say? There are so many leopards here!
By the way, I've said I see caterpillars more often than pupas and yes, in my experience, that has been the case. Yet, I have only seen one since I've moved here. Where are they? Given all these pupas, they must be around somewhere. And where are the eggs?
Wishing my eyes were sharper,
May
Okay, I'm late but just an update, the first one was also dead. Looks like only the green ones are alive.
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