I've been in possession of a Death's Head caterpillar, later chrysalis, since October last year. I have it in an ice-cream tub sitting on a bed of soil, in a darkened cupboard above the oven. I was advised to keep it moist, but not so moist a fungus develops, throughout the chrysalis stage and I have been doing just that by sprinkling a little water on to it and the surrounding soil every 7-10 days. I have no experience of any sort of moth/butterfly at this stage of its life cycle; and I mistakenly thought that the thing would be a solid immovable case, yet it twitches each time I sprinkle it, so I know it's still alive.
I'm a little concerned that it will have been in this case for too long by the time it would normally have hatched out, since even here in relatively mild Scilly, it hardly compares with North African temperatures at this time of year? I'm thinking towards the end of this month, if I see a 10-day warmer spell on the horizon, I might get it out on the window sill and encourage it to speed up its metabolism for an emergence? On the basis it probably won't survive long enough to successfully breed anyway, I thought at least it might be nice to see it as an adult?
I wonder if anybody has any thoughts, and in particular if anyone could advise on the signs that it may be thinking of 'coming out', as it were? I may be imagining things, but I thought it was beginning to look a little more translucent recently?
I'm a little concerned that it will have been in this case for too long by the time it would normally have hatched out, since even here in relatively mild Scilly, it hardly compares with North African temperatures at this time of year? I'm thinking towards the end of this month, if I see a 10-day warmer spell on the horizon, I might get it out on the window sill and encourage it to speed up its metabolism for an emergence? On the basis it probably won't survive long enough to successfully breed anyway, I thought at least it might be nice to see it as an adult?
I wonder if anybody has any thoughts, and in particular if anyone could advise on the signs that it may be thinking of 'coming out', as it were? I may be imagining things, but I thought it was beginning to look a little more translucent recently?