Hitchin' A Ride

Real-time

I had to share this quick blog with you before it becomes history. As you know we're parked on the concrete pad beside Mum & Dads' house here in Napier. A self seeded swan plant (which Mum had been carefully nurturing) had sprouted from a crack in the concrete at the back of the pad and unfortunately when we backed the 5th-wheeler in, the rear of the van went right over the top of it and bent it nearly in half.

Rather than pull it out and have the tiny caterpillars on it die, we let it be, figuring that it was still getting some light and would probably survive. That was back in early December and from my kitchen window I'd often see monarch butterflies flying about hunting for the plant and then disappearing underneath.

We gave the plant a breather and the caterpillars some warm sunshine on their backs for a few days when we pulled out a week or so ago to head to Kuripapango for a few days.  I thought I'd better check underneath to see how the caterpillars were as I'd seen a few crystallises both green and hatched on the nearby fence railings. There were still quite a few caterpillars on the plant but it was more of a surprise to find seven green crystallises attached to the bottom of the van in various places.

We thought about removing them and super-gluing them to a stick so they could hatch in peace but in the end decided they'd be ok under there out of the weather and they'd probably have just as much movement as they would have had on a plant in the wind.

So seven extra passengers came with us on their very own 70km road trip to Kuripapango for a four day holiday. They shared their home away from home with thousands of native bees, a few birds, the odd possum, dozens of sandflies and many other flying insects. 

And seven, still green, passengers returned home with us, all in good health. Over the last few days they have been slowly turning black...

...and emerging from their crystallises. 

Which is just as well as David has been patiently waiting to water blast underneath.

I've now cut the plant off at its base to stop any more butterflies laying eggs before David gets under there. Mum has the plant in a jar of water with the few remaining caterpillars chomping their way through the last of the leaves. There's a funny but sad story there too- after carefully rescuing a fat caterpillar who was off to find a sheltered spot under the van to spin his magic, he then fell off the plant, through a gap in the table and onto the concrete.

Mum carefully returned him to a stable area in the plant but when we went to check on him later he'd headed off again. Mum and I hunted high and low for him; checking the window sills, other plants nearby, under the table the jar was on, everywhere, until suddenly Mum spotted green and black goo squelched out from under my shoe as I stood on the nearby rubber door mat. Hmmm....one fat caterpillar found. And lost.

Meanwhile I've been transferring the butterflies, as they hatch, to the runner bean plants so they can dry out their wings in a sheltered spot. I'm sure they must work on some sort of homing instinct though because it's not long before I see them circling around the back of the van and flying back underneath.

There's just one more chrysalis to hatch, he's turning black as I speak and should be gone by tomorrow evening. David can then get on with his maintenance.

Monarch Mania

Planted along the rear fence of a property that backs onto a walkway nearby is a thick row of Swan plants (a species of milkweed) and the favourite food of the Monarch butterfly caterpillar (larvae).

Unfortunately for the late runners in the caterpillar to chrysalis race, they have very nearly run out of leaves to eat as the plants are virtually all ‘swans’- the hairy seed pod that resembles a swan. It was a hive of activity along the back fence, from the hoards of hungry caterpillars….

…to the ones that knew it was time to hang upside down & prepare for an amazing transformation.

While some hung patiently waiting for that special day….

…the summer heat had encouraged others to break free.

Luckily this butterfly’s neighbours had already emerged otherwise their wet wings may have tangled.

A few held back, building up strength….

… to suddenly emerge without warning…

…and hang quietly, slowly stretching and drying their wings in the summer sun…

…opening and closing them before lifting off and flying away….(my battery ran out right about here hence no flying butterfly & a slightly blurred shot!)

It was amazing how quickly the butterflies emerged when the chrysalis was at the stage of showing the wing pattern, just seconds and they were out. I rescued a chrysalis that was just about to hatch, a caterpillar had eaten the stem and it was in danger of dropping to the ground. I was going to bring it home but by the time I had walked to the end of the row it had cracked the case and was crawling out. I hung it behind some pods out of the wind. Unfortunately for others the wind was too strong and they had fallen to the ground where their wings had stayed compressed.

Mum & I also moved some of the caterpillars off the bare plants and onto the ones that still had a few leaves left- to join a few hundred other caterpillars. At least they would have a fighting chance but we also noticed that some of the smaller caterpillars were obviously adapting to the food shortage and were already hanging upside down waiting to turn.

Nature sure is an amazing thing.

If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies.  ~Author Unknown