I think the true gardener is a lover of his flowers, not a critic of them.
I think the true gardener is the reverent servant of Nature, not her truculent, wife-beating master.
I think the true gardener, the older he grows, should more and more develop a humble, grateful and uncertain spirit.
Reginald Farrer, In a Yorkshire Garden, 1909



Saturday, March 17, 2012

White-striped green caterpillar

Can you find the caterpillar?
This is a beautiful caterpillar. I have seen tiny hairy caterpillars but this is the first time I saw one as beautiful as this. With its green and white-striped color, it camouflaged itself extremely well on one of my plants. It should be around 2.5 inch to 3 inch long. But how did it get that big? It should have been around for some time and while I keep a close eye on my plants, I wonder how I could have missed it.

flexible neck

Excited, I went close to it and touched the body with my fingers. Suddenly, the Y-shaped tongue came out (see pic). The stronger I touched, the more bent the body and the longer the tongue. Intrigued, I ran back inside to take my camera to take a couple of shots. If you look closely, it has eyes too... well fake eyes that is. Mainly to scare predators away.

Y-shaped tongue
As I couldn't afford to have it chew my leaves, I decided to remove it from the plant. That's when I realized it has a very good grip on the leave, so even if it rains or when there is strong wind, it won't fall off easily. I left it in my car porch area while deciding what to do with it. I thought I could take it and leave it on some shrubs somewhere but unfortunately the next morning it was gone.
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4 comments:

  1. AndreaMarch 19, 2012 at 6:10 PM

    Hi Ben, thanks for visiting my site i was directed here. However, i can't open your profile to see which country you are from. It looks like a lot is secret, LOL. That structure on the larvae is not a toungue, it is called osmeterium, which comes out when it is threatened. Maybe it is one of the swallowtail butterflies, which normally is hosted by citrus species like yours.

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    Replies
    1. benMarch 19, 2012 at 9:58 PM

      Hi Andrea. Thank you for your kind msg and for joining this site. Don't know why you can't open my profile but I'm from Malaysia, blogging from a hot tropical country :)
      Thanks for correcting me on the osmeterium. Found out that it emits a foul smell. I wonder how smelly it is. Swallowtails are a common species here but some can be really striking and beautiful.

      Delete
  2. Corner Gardener SueMarch 21, 2012 at 9:12 AM

    I am not good at identifying many caterpillars. I do love them, though, and have learned to live with chewed on leaves.

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    Replies
    1. benMarch 21, 2012 at 9:52 PM

      Sometimes it can be quite frustrating to see the leaves get chewed up especially by grasshoppers. But that's perhaps something I need to learn to live with over time.

      Delete

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