Well, sorry to report that Fred did not survive. Found a lifeless little lump at the top of the pot one day and realized Fred was gone.
Never will know what Fred looked like in the moth stage and will also never know why he did not make it. But he was an interesting little thing while he was here.
Well, after wondering about chrysalis versus cocoon, I read more on the lifecycle of the Tobacco Harn Worm. Turns out their pupa don't seem to be either! They are just brown to brown-reddish pupa. But the more interesting part is that these pupae form in soil. Once the larva has grown big enough and fed enough (as evidence clearly with Fred), they drop to the ground and dig in a little bit. Then they transform into the pupa. That, in turn, goes through the metamorphosis stage, eventually become the Sphinx Moth.
So Fred has only been in his cage for around 42 hours and he has already eaten thru two dozen leaves! He is really a poop machine as he processes this stuff. I've had to dump his droppings several times now from the cage. So he does create quite the amount of fertilizer for his size. (Hhmmmm how many of you have walked thru your garden barefoot? Just think about that for a moment.....)
Meet the new "pet". His name is Fred (maybe it should be Marguerite??? I can't tell!)
Just as I was finishing college, a cat at the family home (daughter of a cat I rescued from being euthanized when it became a "bother"... a whole other story) had a litter of kittens. When only a week old, I got my first good look at them. The mother cat was a slender calico who always got into mischief. Like her, 3 of the kittens had the pointy face and short hair. However, they were orange tabby colored. Then there was the 4th one who really caught my eye. She was a tortoise color, with longer silkie hair than her siblings. And her head was more rounded. Clearly, mom got around.....
So little Miss Sally was spending many hours a day at my place for the last few months. She would frequently arrive in the morning, scratching at the bottom of the front door (she quickly learned that this was the most guaranteed way to get my attention to open the door).
I grew up on a farm and so often, people would come out "to the country" and dump unwanted pets. We would find these confuse, scared, hungry animals wandering along the road or in the fields. It was very heart-breaking as we could not take them all in.
