We have found two dead caterpillars on the ground. We think our caterpillars may have a disease. We found a caterpillar with a green oozing substance on its back. It may have come from the plant or it could have poked itself on something. We are going to research this. We need to do this quickly or else a disease could spread and kill even more caterpillars.
We have also found a praying mantis egg sack. It had a woven pattern at the front and it was very fuzzy as well. We found bubble gum that also looked very much like a praying mantis egg deposit. We can now see the difference between the bubble gum and a real egg deposit (called an ootheca).
We have been rescuing many chrysalises in our garden in the last few days. Mrs Vincent ties a small line of cotton around the cremaster and pulls gently, then repeats until tight. We pegged the thread to a container with a few tissues in the bottom in case the chrysalises fall. We suspect the fallen chrysalises were not the doing of the wind but of fingers of younger Gardens School members, or visitors to our garden after school hours.
Here is a slideshow of all the things we found in our garden today.
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| We
found a chrysalis suspended by a very thin silk thread so thought that
we had better rescue it. When we had one like this last week, the thread
could not support the weight of the chrysalis and it fell, disastrous. |
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| you can really see the silk button at the top of the cremaster on this chrysalis. We are watching this chrysalis with interest as it has a dent in it. |
By Lauren, Kyran and Jackie.
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