Today, on the Kalanchoe leaves in my window garden i finally saw the caterpillar that was ruining my Kalanchoe. I’ve rear this butterfly once before and always marvelled at its defence.
First, this is the Red Pierrot (Talicada nyseus nyseus)
This caterpillar has a fairly cool way of avoiding detection. It simply mines into the leaf, living between the upper and lower surfaces and eating the insides of the leaf.
All one sees is a winding tunnel of dark green or black which is it’s frass (droppings).
This caterpillar ran out of leaf and has come out of the old one and as you can see is in the process of mining into a fresh leaf.
[justify]I would like to add a picture from the caterpillar of Red Pierrot from the CUBE HBCSE campus.[/justify]. [justify]We have the larva/ caterpiller which has come out of the leaf after feeding. We can also see the pupa.[/justify]
