My Resident Cocoon Pt 4

This cocoon has been in my garden since April. I've watched him move up and down my rose bush, rescued him from the green waste bin when I pruned the rose bush, and occasionally watched him as he emerged to feed.

Last Friday I spotted him at the base of the rose bush having a great adventure, looking very active and healthy. Check out my video above.

On Saturday he had climbed back into the rose bush, then the wind arrived, and on Sunday I found him upside down in the garden below. Not sure if the wind had blown him down or if he climbed down himself, I decided to let Mother Nature look after her own and leave him alone.

Yesterday, (Monday), I went to check on him and he was still on the ground at the base of the rose bush, but he had moved. The opening of his little hose was now facing up, where the day before it was facing down. When I checked for him in the  afternoon, he was gone, nowhere to be seen. I've checked again this morning and still cannot find him.

His little house his made of twigs and is very hard to spot sometimes. I just hope he is safe and just found a new branch to sleep on.

A Resident Cocoon Pt 3

Way back in early April I found this cocoon in my garden. Over the last few months I've watched him move about the rose bush, go missing for a day or two at a time, only to re-appear again somewhere else on the rose bush.

Last weekend I decided it was time to prune my roses, and while pruning this particular one, forgot that I had a resident cocoon living in it. I was about half way through the process when I remembered, and his branch was already in the green waste bin. So I dug through the bin, found the branch with the cocoon on it, and propped it back up against what was left of the rosebush.

He stayed there for two days, then promptly disappeared again. The branch by this stage was starting to wilt.

I looked for him everywhere, on the ground, in other close by shrubs, and finally found him back on the rose bush on a pruned living branch.

I have found cocoons like this before in my garden, but have never followed their progress. It has been very interesting to find out that they move while in this transforming state. I also found it interesting that he has moved from a dying branch to a living branch. He must be getting some form of nutrient from it.

Because the rose bush has been pruned, my resident cocoon is now very exposed, and I worry that the birds or some other predator may find him. At the moment he is still there, and I will continue to watch, hopefully to see him emerge with wings.

A Resident Cocoon - Pt 2

Nearly a moth ago now I found a cocoon on my front rose bush. I watched it for a while, as it moved up and down my rose bush, then onto the ground, and then to eventually disappear after two days. I looked around the rose bush, and on the ground below the rose bush, and couldn't find it, figuring Mother Nature had taken over.

On the weekend I spotted it again, this time on a totally different branch of the same rose bush. I am sure it is the same one, the mess of dead leaves at the bottom is the same.

Mother Nature is amazing. Somehow as a caterpillar still building his cocoon, he has moved around from branch to ground, then back up the branch again, and seems to have finally settled on my rosebush. Now he is back, I'll try to watch every day to see Mother Nature at work.

A Resident Cocoon

Yesterday in my garden I spotted a cocoon on my rose bush. At first I thought it was just a mess of dead rose petals, but on closer inspection  I found it to be a cocoon. So I grabbed the camera and took some pics, and promised myself I would watch it daily to take note of the changes.

This morning when I went to look, it was on the move. I could see a head and little feet marching the cocoon further down the rose stem. I was hoping something beautiful was going to emerge. I already had the camera in hand, so I put it on video and pressed the button. I really need to practice my videoing skills!

I watched for a while but my cocoon settled down and closed his top ready for some more changes. So I stopped videoing and let him. be

When I downloaded the video off the camera, and saw how bad it was, I started thinking about video editing and how to do it. Mr Google came to my rescue and I have had a play of cutting some of the crap out of my video. My skills still need some work but I will keep practising.

So above is my slightly edited video of my resident cocoon on the move in my rose bush. I'll try to keep track every day.

A New Tennant

Look who I found has moved into my lemon tree. I found him about a week ago & have no idea as to how long he was there before hand. So I am now watching & waiting to see who emerges. The cocoon is so interesting, and totally different to this one in my rain gauge last year. I am hoping that this one might be a beautiful butterfly, rather than the ugly moth that emerged from the rain gauge. Only time will tell & I am hoping I am around to see it happen.

Transformation

The caterpillar story continues.

Contrary to me thinking that he may have drowned in the rain guage, last week he proved me wrong. I had checked the guage in the morning, still a cocoon, but by late afternoon the above moth had emerged.


He sat in the gauge for two days until finally I tipped the guage up & he flew off to do whatever it is moths do.