Lime Leaf caterpillar

I have posted another post about insects again. But I am not crazy about insects. It is just that I could not think of any other thing to post, so I decided to share something else.

We have heard of pets such as cats, dogs, tortoises, birds, fishes, or hamsters. But as for us, we once had a most unusual pet, which is caterpillars.

The reason why we started having caterpillars is because when I am still very young. When my brother and I went out to play, we like to go to the apartment which is opposite our apartment. At that apartment, at the first floor, there lives a family who plants a very big lime tree outside their house.

On that tree, there are a lot of caterpillars, so everytime, we will catch all the caterpillars on that tree and bring it home. At first, of course, our parents are very angry. At first they want us to throw all away, but my parents thought that when we throw all away, they are all going to die, because there are no food for them. If we were to put back onto the lime tree of that family, they will definitely get very mad. The reason is because caterpillars are not good as they will eat up all the leaves, and spoil the plant.

So the only way is to keep those caterpillars ourselves. So we put all of them into a container, and everyday, we secretly pluck some lime leaves from that family.

That is how we had started taking caterpillars as pets. When they started with egg, it only takes a few days(around 2 to 3 days) to hatch. When the caterpillar is just born, it is very small. It is not even 1cm. Its colour at that time is black and white. It grows very fast. It is so fast that everyday we are able to see it grow everyday. Everyday it gets longer and longer. As it grows bigger, its colour started to lose its colour(It is like the colour becomes lighter). When it grows to a certain length, it started to shed its skin. After it shed its skin, it changes colour. It changes from black and white to green. After it turns into green, it continues to grow again.

After about a week, when it already grows to its maximum length, it started to make its pupa. The way it turns into pupa is amazing. At first, it will find a suitable spot on the wall. Then it started to curve its body, and then it will hang over there, and will not move anymore. The next day, it completely turns into a pupa. The shape of the pupa is like a sharp pointed head pointing opposite direction facing the opposite side of the wall.

After 10 days, the pupa breaks, and a beautiful butterfly came out of it. At first, when the butterfly first come out, it cannot fly. Its wings seems to be crumpled altogether. It needs to wait for a while, until the wings had fully open, then it is able to fly. After it becomes butterfly, we do not keep it anymore. The reason is because butterfly no longer eat leaf anymore. So after it turns into butterfly, we will release it, and see it fly off up high into the sky.

Actually we do plant a lime tree at our house, but it is not as big as that family's lime tree. Ours is very small. Sometimes when we release the butterfly, it will still return back a few days later, and it will lay its eggs on our small lime tree. When it lay its eggs, it is not a lot at a time, but just a few eggs. In one single leaf we are able to see one egg, so it is very hard to find their eggs as all eggs is being laid on separate leaves. We need to find leaf by leaf in order to find the eggs.

When we grown older, we do not go to that family to catch caterpillars anymore. But the butterflies which we releases will still return to lay its eggs, so we are able to continue to keep the caterpillars for quite still quite some time. We still continued to pluck lime leaf from that family, and sometimes, we will go to buy some lime leaves from the market. We do not want those caterpillars to destroy our lime tree either.

There is one time when we buy the lime leaves from the market. After the caterpillars eat them, all of them turn out to be dead. This shows that the lime leaves from the market has some chemicals in it. From this, it also gives us a lesson that some market products are not good as well.

After that incdent, we decided not to buy lime leaves from market anymore, but just to pluck lime leaves from that house, and also to sacrifice our lime trees to provide them with food.

Very soon, our lime tree has all been eaten up by the caterpillars, and there are no leaves left. So we have to go to that family to pluck the lime leaves to supply the rest of the caterpillars that has not turn into pupa yet.

After the last butterfly flew away, it does not come back anymore. The reason is because we do not have any lime leaves to supply it anymore. That is how the caterpillar pet had ended.

Few years later, the leaves of our lime tree had grown back. But those butterflies never return back to lay their eggs anymore. From that time onwards, we do not see any of those caterpillars anymore, and I really misses them.