Hi
I found 2 (or 3?) fairly large spherical eggs laid singly on
Ficus burtt-davyi in Athlone Park, Amanzimtoti on 26 March 2011.
Only one of them hatched, and looked like a little brown piece of twig. I don't seem to have taken photos of it in the early stages, but here it is on 07 April 2011. By then it had developed a really nice reddish (almost plum?) colour and patterns.
It contrasted quite starkly with the bright green of the fig leaves.
Here is a close-up of the rear showing the patterning (the 'tail' was damaged/ kinked in handling'),
and a blurry picture of the front section of the body.
And here is a close-up of the face.
By 12 April 2011 it had become a bit dull in colour, although the patterns were more contrasting.
A significant difference in this instar compared to the former instar was the shape of the 'tail' - it had become blunt. I'm not sure if this was a consequence of the earlier damage or if it is a natural development.
Here is a close-up of the face, showing the larva feeding on a leaf of
Ficus burtt-davyi.
By 15 April 2011, the moth larva was even more dull in colour and quite plump. Here is a top view.
Here it is crawling from the palm of my hand on to my wrist.
On 22 April it had made a shelter between the leaves of
Ficus burtt-davyi in its tub, and had started to pupate.
Although it had made a shelter, Steve suggested to put some dead leaves and soil in a larger container for it to borrow into. I realized it was past the burrowing stage though, but collected some dead leaves and loamy soil from under a
Trichilia dregeana and put this in a larger tub and made a hollow in the soil. I placed the shelter with the pre-pupa inside into the hollow and covered over with three pieces of leaves, ensuring that the pupa was in a hollow, and not being pressed on by the leaves. It pupated successfully and on 25 April I gently moved the leaves aside to get some pictures.
The pupa was elongated, generally light brown, with a pinkish tinge between in the joins of the segments. There were dark spots down the side of the abdomen. The elongated 'nose' was the most striking feature, but I decided not to disturb it too much to get better pictures, and decided to wait until I was sure the shell had hardened.
On 28 April 2011, I decided to take the pupa out to get clearer pictures. It almost looked like a dolphin! Here it is on the palm of my hand.
Here is a close-up of the unusual 'nose'.
But when she hatched out on 10 May 2011 - her nose was a little more refined...
Here is the underside while she was still in the tub.
I was worried she would fly as soon as I opened the lid, but she seemed restful, and I took her outside to put her on the stem of a
Syzygium cordatum (about 20 m from where I collected her as an egg) to get some pictures. Here she is on my hand.
Here she is on the
Syzygium.
Here she is moved into a safer position on the stem and photographed without flash - Would you have seen her?
And finally - today I found another egg in about the same place on the
Ficus burtt-davyi...
