We have a meyer lemon and key lime tree in the backyard which Mr. Price has done a fine job at cultivating. About a year and a half ago, they were ready to be tossed out but now are thriving.
A couple weeks ago he noticed a dozen caterpillars suddenly appeared on the lemon tree, all about 3/4 an inch long and ~3cm wide. Then, not even 4 days later, those little caterpillars were now larger than my pinky finger.
So the Very Hungry Caterpillars have taken up residence on our lemon tree. In less than a week they have grown 4x and taken out quite a few leaves. We were shocked to see how quickly it has progressed. Tried to get a video of one of them chowing on a leaf but he was done by the time I got the camera and got outside. Pretty sure they are about to spin their cocoons. We considered plucking them all off, but figured at this point- may as well let them do their thing.
Of course we thought of the TriPrices and their insect interest and knowledge of crystalises and such. So I took pictures of the crazy little things and decided to document their progress.
and then....we apparently became obsessed. well, Mr. Price was, and now I'm along for the ride. We looked it up and check it out:
Giant Swallowtail Caterpillars and their later Butterfly form
after worrying we might have some massive moth colony in our backyard... looks like we are in for some 4 - 5.5 inch butterflies, 10-12 days after crysalis! guessing there are about a dozen back there. our lemon tree might be doomed, but it might be worth it for the 4 lemons it might have produced this year.
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