If you’re the kind of person that has to peek under the
Christmas tree before the day has arrived, go ahead and skip to the end. If you
read the last page of a novel first or if you fast forward through the movie
because you have to know “what is in the box!”, go ahead and skip to the end. I wouldn't want the suspense to kill you.
What is the fine specimen we have before us? It is a
caterpillar entering the pupal stage before it becomes a butterfly. It has
crawled up under a metal guardrail on a desolate road in the Everglades .
Here it remains suspended, awaiting a transformative process that will entirely
change its way of life. But which species will it become?
Brightly colored insects, reptiles and snakes are usually warning
signs for predators to stay away. The caterpillars of this specie feed on
passion flowers which cause them to be toxic.
While some predators ignore the warnings and suffer the
consequences, others have adapted to the poison and can enjoy what most others
can not. Will the fly on the bottom right of the caterpillar be one of those
predators?
If the color wasn’t enough of a deterrent, the well-fortified
exterior should repel the hungriest of predators. Surprisingly, the fierce
looking spines are innocuous, flexible ornamentation that rounds out the
repulsive costume.
Within a few days, the metamorphic process will conclude,
the pupal casing will cleave and a beautiful butterfly will fly off, but which
species?
If you skipped ahead from the opening paragraph, you’ve
ruined it for everyone and now I won’t tell you what it is. But hey, what’s the
fun of me telling you what is wrapped up in the package when it’s more fun to
find out yourself.
