I found a chrysalis, green and yellow with tiny horns on a tarp today. It had to be moved so I gently plucked the spider web like threads holding it in a vertical posture and laid it down temporarily on another surface, horizontally this time. I certainly expected it would hold still, if I expected anything at all! But like a Mexican jumping bean this thing reminded me it was alive by squirming. I truly think the change from vertical to horizontal orientation disturbed its version of vestibular expectations and perhaps made it a bit “nervous”. I placed it on some yew branches which were in turn placed in a little cup where it would be safe and back in the “correct” position and it settled down, stopped wiggling and is now behaving like the happy little cocoon it is supposed to be.
Obviously the caterpillar just spun this little home and the potential to wiggle to safety will diminish as it hardens over the next few hours. It isn’t a baby, it is actually a middle aged bug, readying itself for maturity as a butterfly or moth but it is vulnerable like a baby right now.
Today has been a day full of bug silk. I woke to spider web heaven following a huge rain. Hundreds if not thousands of little to big webs filled my yard.
No conclusions, just observations.