Plan Tiger Butterfly Laid Eggs

This time I was having a dose of my post-breakfast coffee when I went near the pond.  I happened to observe the Plain Tiger fluttering about, sitting on a plant for a second and changing its place to other spots, but it was coming often to the Asclepias plants where quite a few of these had emerged from the chrysalis. Now the Asclepias plants - I have four young plants - are throwing up new leaves after those caterpillars completely devoured all the leaves. 

I noticed that this Plain Tiger when it was sitting on the edge of leaves, it was curling its abdomen and touching the undersides with the tip.   I thought it must be laying eggs.

I went closer and examined one such leaf.  Lo and behold!  There was a tiny tiny egg.  

I carefully checked other leaves and there were many such tiny creamish eggs!  I saw it laying one on the stem.

That is the egg. 

The tiny new caterpillars that will come out will know food will be right there! New leaves are appearing.  They leave the eggs where food for the caterpillars will be available very close as they will be quite tiny.  

This is of course the female butterfly.  Note the 3 dark spots clearly visible here.  The male will have one more spot. See next picture of a male just emerged.

Another shot of  that female taking a pause between egg-laying flights. By this time, I had fully emptied my coffee.

I'll be watching the tiny eggs. 

Plain Tiger Butterfly Eclosion

The caterpillar had made a chrysalis on the morning of 6th November, which I posted in the previous entry.  

[Click on the pictures to take a magnified view]

On 13th morning, I was in for a big surprise.  Surprise, only because I could not properly identify the caterpillar from its pattern and also had got misled by the swarm of Blue Tigers.  That had led me to think only of Blue Tigers!  Again, I was sipping my coffee near the pond.  The same chrysalis which was green the previous evening was now this: 

A dramatic metamorphosis overnight!  All the while I had thought it was of a Blue Tiger.

When such a drastic change had taken overnight, I knew it would emerge sooner than later.  Four caterpillars had pupated last week.  And all four had turned brown now.  Leaving the coffee on the bench, I rushed in to bring the camera.  In just two minutes........ this!

One fellow had already emerged in such quick time!!  It was in fact, the Plain Tiger and not the Blue Tiger.  I was ready for the next one which appeared to emerge any moment. I had quickly set up the tripod on the stone bench and it could be photographed in 'macro' at a height of about 9 inches.  I was still sipping coffee while watching the chrysalis closely for any movement inside.  

I was ready for live action!  I clicked pictures every few seconds as action happened and in just ten minutes it had almost opened up its wings and was ready to start flying. The first one could not grip the wall and had fallen down.  I had carefully made it to climb on to a dry leaf and left it safe.  I did the same to this one, before it fell off the wall.

Here is the series of shots stringed together.  [Click here]

Since it is a weekday, I had to leave for work.  So, I went away after I had left the two new butterflies safely on the Jaquemontia plant [vine] a few inches from where they had emerged. When I arrived for lunch, I saw those two fluttering above the pond and nearby plants.  In the evening, I could see two out of the four that had emerged happily flying about, leaving the empty, transparent chrysalis.  

It was nearly dark when I took these pictures using flash.

There are at least 3 more to watch, on the spider plant.  They should emerge this weekend.  This was the first time I've watched through stages from caterpillar to pupa to butterfly.

Plain Tiger Caterpillar Pupates

This is almost a continuation of my previous post on PlainTiger Butterfly Caterpillars.  Today being a Sunday, I thought of 'catching some action' of how these caterpillars go into chrysalis.  While sipping my morning coffee near the pond, as is the habit, I looked for these caterpillars. A few were still competing for their food as the Asclepias plants have been chewed away to such an extent that only stems are left to be chewed.  Some caterpillars had fulfilled their food needs and were getting ready to pupate. I saw one already in the 'J' position.  I thought it would take an hour or two for it go into chrysalis. So I went in to do some usual Sunday chores.  

When I was ready with breakfast, it was still in the 'J'.  So I went in to do some more work, deciding to visit this every 10-15 minutes. After a couple of such visits, I was shocked to see it already gone to chrysalis!  It was such a short time.  

So I looked around if there were some more caterpillars getting ready.  Yesterday I had seen one crawling on the Spider Plant leaf which I have kept in a pot very close to the Asclepias plants. I guessed they might have fixed themselves underneath as I have now known they look for some horizontal things.  I was right.  When I bent low to look underneath, I found three in the 'J' position!! 

I did not want to miss the action which I now knew would be lasting a few minutes.  I wanted to be there all the while. So I removed the pot and placed it on the concrete table close to it, higher, so that I could also see and photograph it.  

I went in quickly and set things up for the shoot.  

And sat in the 'ready' to watch and catch the action whenever that happened.  I knew it would not be too long, going by the previous observation.

The two others that pupated just a few minutes ago and escaped me are seen in this picture. So I was able to focus on the one.  I could see some movement every few seconds to push silk out.  Any moment there would be 'action' that I waited for.  Very soon, I saw the 'J' straighten out.  I knew now this was the moment. 

Every few seconds I clicked the camera sitting there watching it.  See the time lapse images I have posted online, here:

[Click here for YouTube video link]

The time duration on the text slides was okay when I made it on Picasa and it played well.  But online, it is too short.  Sorry about it. You may have to pause to see what it reads.  View full screen as I have also recorded the time at the bottom and see how quickly this magic happened. 

It would take about 10-12 days for the 'eclosion' - emergence of a new butterfly from its chrysalis. This is also a word I came to know from Beverly.  I have not been able to spot their eggs and the tiny caterpillars emerging, happening in an extremely small scale.  Anyway, I hope the eclosion happens on a holiday.