Saga of the Flag Moth - Part 7

Description:

Beginning on January 14th, the larvae again began some silk production in the leaves, however the wanderings of the other larvae tore out the silk, so one by one they all climbed down to the floor of the container and became immobile in a shrunken, semi-circular "prepupal" position. At the time, I actually thought they were all dying! (1st picture). On the 19th of January, two larvae pupated. The head capsule splits open (from side to side) and the pupa pops out all wet and yellow, leaving the larval skin behind (2nd picture). It takes about 2 hours for the pupa to darken and harden, changing from yellow to red to brown (3rd and 4th pictures). The 4th picture also shows the abandoned and shriveled larval skin. The very last larva did not pupate with its brothers and remained feeding for another week (5th picture). More on this one next time. The video is a Time Lapse Photography series of the actual pupal emergence from the larva.

Habitat:

The video was made by my husband, Renato Zárate. The camera was set for Time Lapse, taking photographs every 10 seconds for hours and hours in order to capture the relatively fast sequence of the pupa emerging from it's larva (following more than a week of prepupal dormancy). I am amazed the larvae survive their long periods of dormancy prior to each molt and then pupation. They are totally at the mercy of predators and parasitoids during those times.

Notes:

Part 1: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/165.... Part 2: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/167.... Part 3: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/169.... Part 4: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/170.... Part 5: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/170.... Part 6: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/214.... Part 8: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/215.... Part 9: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/212.... Part 10: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/221....