Almost here!

Muncher grew at a rapid pace last week. Here he is with the remains of a leaf -- about one and half days' work for him. Or her. With all the guessing we've done about its adulthood, "A" of GAIN and I keep calling Muncher "him."








The climax was finding him on the lid I had constructed out of cardboard. I dumped all the leaves out of the jar and didn't even know he was up there until I went to replace the lid. No wonder I didn't find him on leaf! You can see the stick I placed in the jar for Muncher to climb when he was ready. (Or she.)

I removed the cardboard after getting a scolding from "I" and "N," (I could have killed Muncher on accident) then hung it from the light fixture over our seldom-used dining room table. (Why don't we use it? The reasons are too numerous to list here.)

After crawling around all morning, the neighbor kids and "I" of GAIN came to watch him for quite a bit in the late afternoon. He crawled all over the cardboard, under and on top of, a little on the light fixture, too. They disappointedly left without seeing any J formation. Sorry kids, things don't happen on our time, but God's time.

Upon waking the next morning, Muncher had finally settled down in a spot and was hanging in J formation. We checked him -- all.day.long. No joke. We kept the camera on the dining room table so we could catch him in the act of shedding his stripes for a chrysalis. But our schedule couldn't wait any longer. We were going to have to head to Sec Taylor/Principal Park. I predicted that he would change while we were away, and everyone agreed, we'd probably miss it. We did.

["N" of GAIN is using Muncher as his Photography Merit badge project, so witnessing as much as possible is key to his success. Luckily, we have a second caterpillar as a back up. Since it's smaller, -ette was added to make Munchette.]