A small update from the Menagerie

Poststructural Pub
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Chas has given us a bunch of small caterpillars to raise




The teeny tadpoles turned into teeny frogs, and we released them

The silkworm caterpillars (which grew to the size of my pinky finger) turned into much smaller moths than I was expecting. They were delicious!

And…a small addition to the avian family!

…another starling, found by the same neighbor who found Izzy. In the same parking lot, almost exactly a year later.

The forecast for the next few weeks is – not so small

Chas’ caterpillars yesterday

The new birdie on the rt, Izzie on the left

Kevin named her “Spot” :laughing:

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there’s just no end to the things you can get from musicians…

I remember a time back in…ah :blush: sorry

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We’ve discovered the oddest thing about the polyphemus caterpillars – We’ve got most of them on beech and a handful on American elm. The elm caterpillars are almost twice as big as those eating beech. I don’t know if they’ll molt fewer times or just become bigger moths.

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That is odd about the elm vs beech!

Kevin can’t believe that any caterpillar could be twice the size of what we have now, and wonders if you could post a picture?

How many do you have left?
We’re down to 9 out of 20. A bunch got lost during the “teeny” stage, two died while molting, and one extra spunky one escaped from the cage, climbed a wall, and just as we saw it and went to rescue it, someone swooped in and ate it :frowning:

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I’ll try to get some pics. We’ve still got 60-someodd; I think we’re at around 60 per cent of those we’ve been raising once a few very kind souls took some off our hands. :wink:

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If I had a way to photograph the long-toed salamanders that breed in my pond and northern spotted frogs I grew from tadpoles, I would share too.

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Hm. Not sure how it is in the states, but in the UK Beech trees have small-ish leaves and the leaves are fairly stiff. Elm trees have large leaves that are notably softer. Elms are more bosky than beech. Maybe your elm-eaters don’t have to work so hard for their nourishment.