Clio Tiger Moth Life From Egg to Moth

Here is a close-up of the white moth I found today. She looks like royalty in her beautiful white fur coat! Thanks very much to Art (Leapfrog) for positively identifying this beautiful lady as a Clio Tiger Moth (Ectypia clio)! ! If you would like to know more about this moth, here is a page to look at!: Pacific Northwest Moths: Clio Tiger Moth A Few Fun Facts About Moths! • The Hawk moth (Sphinx) is the worlds fastest flying insect attaining speed of over 50 kph • Moths make up 80 percent of the order lepidoptera. (Butterflies, Skippers and Moths) • Moths navigate by two methods. They use the moon and stars when available and geomagnetic clues when light sources are obscured. • Quite a few moths fly during the day, such as the Hummingbird Clearwing, Virginia Ctenucha and the Spear-Marked Black.

2 more pictures in notes above! :) Would you just look at these adorable little cutie pies?!! Now repeat after me: AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!! :D :D I had a difficult time seeing where to focus because they were so impossibly tiny! However, I managed to get lots of really neat pictures and I thought the best way to share them would be in a collage! A couple of them I left as single pictures because I thought they were best appreciated at a larger size. I hope you like them! :D

3 pictures in notes above! :) Talk about amazing luck!! I was on my way the large Milkweed patch to check on the caterpillars when I thought, "I should take a quick peek at the small patch...what's another couple of minutes to see if there is anything special?" GOOD THING I CHECKED!! This pair of mating Clio Tiger moths were resting under a stem and although the wind was blowing them around a bit, I managed to get a nice picture to share! I went back to check on them about an hour later and they had either separated and flown away or they crawled down out of sight. I'm so glad I found them before they disappeared!!

4 more pictures in notes above! :) For the past few days I've been checking on the tiny eggs I found on the Milkweed stems, and this morning was HATCH DAY!! First I found a single caterpillar...and then I found dozens of adorable, itty bitty caterpillars crawling all over the leaf where their eggs had been attached! Talk about TINY!!! These little guys are just 1/16" in size and as cute as a fuzzy button! Would you just LOOK at that fancy hair?! We're talking HIGH FASHION here!! I went out twice to take pictures--once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and I'm glad I went the second time because on the way to the large Milkweed patch, I stopped by the smaller patch and found a pair of MATING Clio Tiger Moths--which is what these caterpillars will turn into!! Talk about luck! I got a picture of them to share, and a collage of images of the fuzzy babies--plus a couple of extras included in notes! HOORAY FOR HATCH DAY!!! :D Laozi or Lao Tzu; also romanized as Lao Tse, Lao Tu, Lao-Tsu, Laotze, Laosi, Laocius, and other variations) (fl. 6th century BCE) was a philosopher of ancient China, best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching (often simply referred to as Laozi). His association with the Tào Té Chīng has led him to be traditionally considered the founder of philosophical Taoism (pronounced as "Daoism"). He is also revered as a deity in most religious forms of Taoist philosophy, which often refers to Laozi as Taishang Laojun, or "One of the Three Pure Ones". Wkipedia: Lao Tzu Explored on July 29, 2013. Highest placement: page 2 (#33).

6 more pictures in notes above! :) A couple of weeks ago, I shared some pictures of some caterpillar eggs I discovered, and then I found some beautiful Tiger moths which appear to be the ones who laid the eggs. I decided to bring a 2-inch-long section of eggs home with me, leaving behind almost all of the eggs just in case they didn't hatch indoors. I put them in a plastic container with hole-pricked plastic wrap and waited. And waited. I worried if I had done a bad thing, but hoped they would be ok. A week later, at 3 in the morning, I woke up in a panic! "OH NO!! WHAT IF MY LITTLE BUDDIES HATCHED AND DIED!!!" I turned on the light in the kitchen and after being blinded for a minute, I thought that I could hear music playing from inside the container. "WHAT THE???" I asked myself, and I looked into the container... (Play this in the background while you read! :D Kool & The Gang: Celebration ) "There's a party goin' on right here A celebration to last throughout the years So bring your good times and your laughter too We gonna celebrate your party with you"... Why, the place was CRAWLING with little fuzzy wuzzies!! They were everywhere! On the floor, on the sides and the plastic wrap ceiling too! ...and they had NO FOOD. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I pulled on some clothes (can't go running out in the meadow in my skivvies after all!) and ran outside and into our smaller meadow to the Milkweed patch there, plucked a few leaves, and zoomed back. I pinched the leaves into smaller pieces and placed them into the container, coaxed a few towards the munchies...and as I sat gasping for breath, I watched my tiny charges. Because I am blessed with extremely good close-up vision, I was able to watch these 1/16" caterpillars as they noticed the milkweed and then...nibble nibble nibble, munch munch munch...HOORAY!!!! They were EATING!!!!! Once I could see that they were making their way to the tasty goodness, I dribbled a few droplets of water inside, covered them back up and went back to bed. The next morning I got up and took a peek Every single caterpillar--about 50 I'd say--had found its way onto the leaves! There were munched holes and little lines of eating all over! I was overjoyed. That was nearly two weeks ago. The caterpillars are eating like little piggies and I bring them new leaves every day. They are probably about 1/4" in size now and as you can see, their latest hairstyle is extremely fancy and enviable! :D I will be moving them into a larger container tomorrow because they're outgrowing the tiny plastic box I had for them! The OINKERS! :D This project has been such fun for me. I've never raised caterpillars before and it's something I've wanted to try for years. I would like to thank Dean Morley and all of you who encouraged me to try raising these little guys. It's so exciting to see them getting bigger every day! I'll be posting updates with new developments as they occur! :)

It was pretty funny trying to keep this guy near the quarter. He kept crawling away, and all he wanted to do was go back to sleep! :D Poor fellow, I made sure to tuck him back in with his buddies after this picture! :)

1 picture above in a link! :D This guy really would like to get back to bed and isn't interested in helping me out with size comparisons! But isn't he adorable?!! :D I added a bit of texture to the background from Jerry Jones , using his Netherworld TOTD # 128 image! THANKS JERRY!! :)

2 more pictures in notes above! :) Here you can see just how HUGE these caterpillars are getting! But as they grow, their hair styles change! I think this version is especially fancy and spectacular, don't you?! :D Did you know that caterpillars molt as they grow? These caterpillars leave behind tiny, fluffy "pompadours", and as they grow larger, the "pompadours" get larger too! My husband thinks that I may be certifiably insane because I can't bear to throw away the fluffy little "wigs"...so, one of these days you will all get to see my collection of tiny little caterpillar "wigs"! :D :D They look like miniature Tribbles! :D

10...yes, TEN more pictures in notes above! ENJOY THE SHOW!! :D I can't believe how much fun I've been having raising caterpillars from eggs! To bring you up to date, I brought a small twig into the house on July 25, which had some eggs on it. I discovered that they were from Clio Tiger Moths after finding one laying eggs exactly like the ones I had. Although the stick was literally only a tiny fraction of the number I found, I was amazed when the eggs hatched and there were so many itty bitty caterpillars crawling around! They were so small I could just barely see them! I got them some milkweed leaves to eat, and every day since I've been bringing them fresh leaves and keeping their habitat clean and increasing the size of their container as they've grown. (You can read the original story of the caterpillars here: Piggy 'Pillar!! ) Now, I have read that caterpillars grow fast, but I've never raised them before now, and I have to tell you: it's absolutely AMAZING how fast they grow!!! In one month's time, they have grown from about 1/16" in size to about 1.5" for the largest ones!! It's just incredible to me! In order to get that huge so quickly, all they do during the night is eat, and they sleep all day like a bunch of gluttenous oinkers! :D Today I wanted to show one of the big ones next to a quarter so you can see how huge they've become! At last count, I have about 50 of them, which is surprising because only about 5 of them have died. As I'm sure you probably know, the reason so many eggs are layed is because the survival rate is extremely low, so with the huge number of offspring, at least a few may make it to adulthood. We'll see how many live until pupal stage, but I will bet it will be at least 40. The largest are getting close to pupal stage, and I just can't wait to watch that show!! STAY TUNED!!! I added a bit of texture to the background from Jerry Jones , using his Fire Damage 10-21-09 TOTD # 87 image for the edging! THANKS JERRY!! :) George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, writer and producer who worked in theater, radio and film. He is best remembered for his innovative work in all three media, most notably Caesar (1937), a groundbreaking Broadway adaptation of Julius Caesar and the debut of the Mercury Theatre; The War of the Worlds (1938), one of the most famous broadcasts in the history of radio; and Citizen Kane (1941), consistently ranked as one of the all-time greatest films. Wikipedia: Orson Welles Explored on August 27, 2013. Highest position, page 3 (#65).