We have two new additions to the family- Fred & Shaggy the Orange tips!
So last weekend, we found an Orange tip egg on some locally growing cuckoo flower & in the cuttings I took for food, I realised there was another egg! It was like finding out I was having twins! (Okay, not quite, but it was still not as straight forward as keeping one). They are cannibalistic - so that meant two of everything !
“I have two baby caterpillars!” - Jared
Fred hatched first on Thursday and shaggy the day after; the eggs both went from bright orange (see pic) to brown , and then all of a sudden they were empty - they really don‘t hang around whilst hatching!
They are so tiny - thin as a pin and less than a cm long at first- so they can take a while to find.
Below are the first pictures of Fred; I wish my camera was better to show you how amazing they look when very young - they have very fine black bristles with little drops of fluid at the tip! They look nothing like what they will do before they pupate. After Fred ate some of his egg, he was off to find some food!
I actually managed to catch Shaggy eating his egg. I seriously was excited when I had seen they had successfully hatched - we had been hunting for caterpillars or eggs for a couple weeks! The first picture here shows how the egg is no longer orange before hatching.
Both caterpillars are currently hanging out on freshly cut Garlic Mustard, they absolutely love it. We do not keep them on the windowsill and cotton wool is clogging up the neck of the bottles to keep them safe. For now, this is our set up until they get a bit bigger.
“I love my caterpillars sooo much!”- Jared
We will keep you updated with pictures as they grow and eventually pupate! If you want to rear a caterpillar, you can get great advice for keeping your caterpillar happy here from The Munching Caterpillars website.
Hi kids firstly let me congratulate you all on your new arrivals 🐛🐛Well done finding them know you hunted for them so excited for Jared .Pictures are fantastic well done mummy for them, bet Jared was super excited with them and well spotted finding the eggs can’t wait to keep up with the news of how the babies are growing and what Jared finds fascinating about their journey again well done hope Levi finds them interesting to love the temp housing for the wee mites you are all so clever making thing up so is that me a granny 👵🏼to 2 wee caterpillars 🐛🐛now as well as a cat and auntie Tracy’s dog lol