A spiky brown caterpillar on the underside of a leaf

A spiky brown caterpillar on the underside of a leaf

These 2 have been on their chosen leaf for a whole day & a bit now. The spikes are looking a little deflated. I'm thinking they are about to shed again☺️ That means there's 2 more molts to go & then they will vanish off to somewhere to turn into chrysalis🥰 #RichmondBirdwing #Caterpillar #ThirdInstar

Time lapse of a #RichmondBirdwing caterpillar, shedding its skin to become a chrysalis. This butterfly is vulnerable due to food plant loss. Gardeners prefered the highly toxic Dutchman's pipe vine over the Richmond Birdwing vines. People from QLD & Northern NSW are working to restore its numbers.

What a marathon 😳
In the end, only the time-lapse worked 🫣
Here's the last 45 minutes condensed into a few seconds. A #RichmondBirdwing caterpillar turning into a chrysalis.

Macro of a small, round, yellow egg on a green leaf. The metal ruler shows it's size to be 3 mm

And then there were 3 🤭😱🥳
I have a #RichmondBirdwing #ButterflyEgg, along with the two caterpillars I'd already found 🥰🤩
I have now placed the wildlife camera to face the vine & I am confident it will catch a butterfly of this size, given it captures a spider's thread blowing in the wind.🤣