It is my pleasure to announce the newest addition to my household: Habakkuk, the caterpillar. Yes, indeed I did just say that a caterpillar has taken up residence in my house.
Why? would be a very good question at this point. And the answer is, for the pure joy of watching this life form develop and morph through the course of it's life cycle. I acquired him from the entomology lab at school, after a lab session where we had the opportunity to observe several stages of the life cycle of this particular species (egg all the way to moth). I am hoping to make some what of a photo journal of Habakkuk's life, which will only extend for 2 and a half months or so. But at this point he is a little too small to get an adequate picture for your viewing. So we'll just have to deal with words until a clear picture can be had.
Habakkuk is a Tobacco Hornworm, named for two very good reasons. He eats tobacco and has a horn on his back. People are really creative at naming things, I know. The species is Manduca Sexta, if you want to look it up. Here is a simple break down of Manduca's life cycle:
Eggs hatch out itty bitty caterpillars. We're talking no more than a few millimeters in width and maybe half a centimeter in length. The caterpillar, which is the larva of the adult moth, will remain as such for about a month and a half before it pupates. During this stage, it will molt (shed it's skin) about 4 times, causing 5 instars total (the final instar being about 4 inches long and a centimeter or more in diameter). An instar is basically a way of saying how many stages the larva goes through before becoming an adult insect. These five instars have one job only: to EAT. And eat they do. Constantly. Eat and poop. But hey, if you were growing at the rate that they do, you would too. We're talking increasing your body mass by 400 times in less than two months. That takes a lot of energy. What's crazy about it is that caterpillars are born with as many cells as they're ever going to have. That means that instead of having cells divide to make more body mass, their cells just get bigger and BIGGER. After the caterpillar reaches the fifth instar, it will make a little nest and pupate (turn into a cocoon). It takes about 2 weeks to turn caterpillar to moth, and when it does, the moth will be about 4 inches in wingspan, and GORGEOUS.
When I got Habakkuk on Thursday, he was pretty freshly out of the egg. Measuring in at less than a centimeter in length, he looked like a chunk of green angel hair pasta. Since then (~6 days ago), he has molted once, and grown significantly. He's pushing 2cms long, and definitely eats at least twice his body weight every day. These caterpillars are quite the brilliant shade of green, and as they grow, they get white stripes that look like a line of Vs down their backs. When Habakkuk hatched, he was green and pretty transparent. Now, his stripes are starting to form and he's more of an opaque green.
Call me a dork, but I get really excited to watch him every day. It's pretty amazing how this green stringy thing is alive and growing. For something that doesn't really have much of a brain, he knows what his purpose is: to eat and grow and turn into something beautiful. I can't wait to upload pictures because, this creature is UNBELIEVABLE. God was pretty darned creative when He put this world together.
Stay tuned for updates on Habakkuk's status!
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