August 28th, 2006
clash of the titans
Yes,…. another caterpillar post. I hope this isn’t becoming too boring for others, but I find the cat behaviour quite interesting and thought that others might share the same sentiment.
But first, I’ll begin with a Monarch progress report: We’re now down to about 8 caterpillars of various sizes. I’d actually vowed not to bring any more of them indoors this summer as I didn’t want to have to be caring for them after about the end of August, but as the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Last week, while collecting fresh leaves for the caterpillars, I came across a couple of small cats that probably wouldn’t have survived for long amid all of the roving predator insects, so I brought them indoors. In any case, now we’re down to about 6 large to mid-sized cats and the two little gaffers. The rest have pupated, and there are somewhere around 30+ chrysalises hanging from bits of screen on the dining room table (as you might guess, we don’t entertain much, so the table usually looks more like a work bench occupied by the latest project-in-progress). We also have a chrysalis hanging from the curtains, one from a ceramic bowl, and over the weekend, Don found another attached to a cross-bar underneath one of the end tables. It turns out that these caterpillars are very resourceful in finding objects to attach themselves to. So far, we’ve had 7 Monarch butterflies eclose. Of them, 4 eclosed before the MonarchWatch tags arrived, so were released untagged. We’re now up to 3 tagged Monarchs as 2 females eclosed yesterday. So far, we’re batting 4 females to 3 males.
Now, on to today’s frame-grab image up at the top of this post. I’ve mentioned before that, shortly before pupating, the Monarch caterpillars become extremely restless. It’s not unusual for me to find them roaming up and down the curtains, or wandering over objects on the tables. I’ve even found a couple striking out across the living room floor for points unknown. That’s a little worrisome as I fear that sooner or later we’ll step on one, although, so far, there have been no fatalities. For the most part, everything works out well and despite all the roaming around, we’ve had a very good number of successful pupations. Unfortunately, I have had to discard about 4 caterpillars that seemed as though they were going to pupate, but instead turned dark and began to grow furry mold. I suspect them may have been either diseased, or more than likely, victims of some type of wasp or tachinid fly parasitoids. But back to the pair of caterpillars in the photo.
On Friday, I happened to walk in on a battle in progress. Two of the largest caterpillars had crawled up onto the lip of their tray and were fighting like mad. It seems that neither of them wanted to yield and make way for the other, so the titans repeatedly clashed, rearing up, weaving bodies from side to side, and occasionally pressing down on one another. Of course, I was too fascinated to run and grab the camera, so I just caught the tail-end of this 2 or 3 minute altercation on video. However, I thought that it might be of interest, so I’ve posted a little .mp4 clip of the action. The file is small (less than 800kb) and runs for about 25 seconds. Just click here or on the above image to access the file. If anyone has trouble viewing .mp4 clips and requires some other format, let me know and I’ll see if I can come up with an alternative.
August 28th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
So, how did they resolve their conflict?
August 28th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Robin – They seemed to resolve things fairly peacefully. After a couple of minutes of pretty lively clashing, they remained very still for awhile, and then the one on the right turned and headed back the other way. I suppose it lost in the war of wills, but perhaps it just wasn’t the combative type (I can identify with that).
August 28th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
The one on the left seems to have alot faster “get off me” movements, while the one on the right is slower and more fluid. Do you remember if it was like that all the way through before you shot some video?
August 28th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
Peter – I’d have to say that the one on the left seem to have the upper hand most of the time. It seemed a lot more snippity (comparing them to the way horses can act — some horses are very snippity and with lash out at others and tend to be bossy — and the caterpillar on the left seemed that way). As mentioned to Robin, the one on the right gave up and turned around after the encounter, so the one on the left got its way and continued forward.
August 28th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Two things (well, three really – I often have trouble with accessing movies, but have never had trouble with yours. And of course, they’re great and unique!):
I’m flaking out on whether monarch cats have osmetria. At any rate I didn’t see any. I wonder if swallowtails in such a confrontation would have been provoked enough to unleash them.
I’ve seen caterpillars of other species, tent cats, for instance, that will get on the rim of a container like that and go round and round forever, never reversing course nor deviating, as if they’re following a pheromone trail.
August 28th, 2006 at 8:09 pm
Wayne – Thanks about the movies. I have trouble with movies on some sites too, which is why I’m trying to stick to formats that will work for the most people. I don’t want to use formats that require downloading and installing plug-ins, because it seems that half the time they don’t work right anyhow.
No, I don’t think Monarch cats have osmetria. I think the number of species with them is quite small and belong to a different group. However, I do think that Swallowtails would unleash them in such a confrontation. We noticed that the Swallowtail that we had here a couple of weeks ago seemed to lash out at anything that touched it. I don’t imagine they see too well, as it would even slash its head at something as innocuous as a bit of Queen Anne’s Lace stem. It actually seemed sort of over-reactive or very grouchy.
I’ve seen tent caterpillars do just as you’ve described. I sometimes wonder if they aren’t too intelligent. In contrast, the Monarch cats seem pretty bright and don’t repeat anything. If you pull them loose and move them when they are trying to escape on one route, they won’t usually go back there, but will try something different. They’re also very good at getting beyond obstacles. They also seem to differ a little in how they react to things (as mentioned above), and don’t seem to have the kind of herd mentality that is typical of the tent cats. It’s been very interesting having them around to study for a few weeks.
January 26th, 2007 at 12:27 am
HI, I AM A FIRST TIME VIEWER OF YOUR SITE. I FIND IT VERY INTERESTING, AND AM LEARNING A BIT ABOUT THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY. I HAVE BEEN RELEASING MONARCH, VICROY, AND QUEEN BUTTERFLY FOR THREE YRS. RECIENTLY BOUFHT A NEW TREE, RIGHT NOW IT IS MORE LIKE A SMALL BUSH. I BOUGHT THE TREE IN A NEW NURSERY. I LIKED THE TREE BUT HAD NO NAME, AND HE DIDN’T KNOW WHAT KIND IT WAS. WHEN I TRANSPLANTED THE SMALL TREE, I NOTICED THREE SMALL YELLOW CATEPILLER’S ON THE STEMS. WELL THAT GOT ME TO LOOKING IN MY BUTTERFLY BOOK, AND ON THE COMP. THAT IS HOW I FOUND YOUR SITE. SO I SUSPOSE I WILL HAVE TO FIND THE NAME OF THE TREE AND START THERE. MY DAUGHTER IS A ORCHIDOLOGIST. I WILL SEND HER A PIC. THEN GET BACK TO U. I MUST SAY RELEASING MONARCH’S HAS BEEN A REAL JOY FOR ME AND MY HUSBAND. OUR YARD HAS MANY FLOWERING PLANTS AND BUSHES. I HAVE RELEASED OVER 600 BUTTERFLY’S THIS YR. HAVING UP TO 60 CHRYSALIS AT ONE TIME. NOW THAT I KNOW WHERE U R I WILL BE READING YOUR SITE. EUNICE
January 26th, 2007 at 1:28 am
Hi Eunice – Glad you found your way to my blog and that you enjoyed looking around. Very interesting to hear that you’ve been raising several species of butterflies. I enjoy it too and will probably raise even more this coming summer.
February 12th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
I’m loving your blog! I too have raised butterflies Vanessa cardui ( The Painted Lady ) was my favorite! I loved ( and still do ) watching the little cuties grow up. My mom who doesn’t like caterpillars even enjoyed it.
I did it for a few years and hopefully this is year I’ll do it again. I even brought some to my school so the kids in my class could see them. Hopefully I’ll get my hands on some Monarchs! =)
P.S. Putting your blog in my favourites!
February 13th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Hi Brittanie – Glad you found your way to my blog. Very interesting to hear about the Vanessa cardui. I’ve heard they’re one of the species that works will for raising. This year, I intend to raise Monarchs again, but may also try to raise a couple of other species as well.