Day Fifty One

Fed the one lone silkworm a few leaves off our depleted mulberry tree.
This last silkworm seems very reluctant to move on to the next stage of its cycle.
Someone in the Blue Mountains posted a picture of their liquid amber tree which thinks it's autumn already and its leaves have turned all autumnal colours.
Wonder what effect this has on the silkworms and their development.
This December is officially the coolest December on record in fifty years!



Here's another picture I've found of Alice and the Blue Caterpillar.  Hope you like it.

Day Forty Nine

Can report that today, one silkworm caterpillar remains.
Only one caterpillar left to spin a cocoon.
Hallelujah!

Day Forty Three, Week 7

Here is Alice, from Alice In Wonderland speaking with the blue caterpillar.

In Lewis Carroll's story, the caterpillar does not have a name.

The caterpillar's most memorable quote would have to be:  "Who are you?"

To which Alice replies:  "I—I hardly know, sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then."

Is Lewis Carroll alluding to the changes that a caterpillar must go through in its own life?

Will Alice need to go through similar transformations? 

In the original story by Carroll, the caterpillar makes an appearance in chapters four and five then disappears from the scene.

How true to form is this? 

Thanks to The Graphics Fairy for the above image.

Day Thirty Nine

Below are some links to children's books about caterpillars and the metamorphosis that they must go through to complete the cycle from egg to moth or butterfly.
I will continue to add to the list as I discover more titles.

Children's Books
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heilligman

Casper the Ugliest Caterpillar by Tammy Pierce

Ten Little Caterpillars Bill Martin Jr.

Craft Resources for Children

7 Silkworm Cocoons

Day Twenty Eight

By the size of the holes in this leaf it 

 seems that silkworm caterpillars are not the only caterpillars that like mulberry leaves.

I found the above little fellow on my supply of leaves that have been stored in the refrigerator.

It has been chilled for something like three days, and survived.

I put the caterpillar and the leaf outside.

I'm hoping that the little creature can fend for itself.

My other find today was a silkworm in a smaller container that I  had been storing the larvae in ready to be picked up.

I thought  it was empty.

I'd say that the silkworm had been in the container for something like a week.  

It too survived!  

If there was food for in the container who can say?  There was none today.

It has now joined it's brothers and sisters in one of the three tanks I've got going to house them all.