For the identification of insects and other fauna and flora of South Africa.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Caterpillar to moth - Athetis sp Family Noctuidae

Unfortunately here there are hardly any books available which show which caterpillars belong to which moths/butterflies. After lots of consultation with people in the know, I was asked to start documenting this in order to do a book later on. It is going to be a process of many years, but one well worth the time and effort. At the end of last summer I caught a few caterpillars and put them in bottles to see what would hatch from it and this is the first one to emerge.

The caterpillar:
Starting to pupate:
Pupa:
Newly emerged:
8 hours later it has it's full colors:

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