Last Fall, we found a rather large bright green caterpillar. It was very fat and reminded me of Heimlich on “A Bug’s Life”.
The kids placed the caterpillar in a large screened cage we used for a monarch a few years ago and waited for it to turn into a butterfly. After only a few days, the caterpillar was gone. The only thing different we noticed in the cage was a bunch of black gunk in one corner sort of hidden by several leaves. We weren’t sure if the caterpillar escaped or turned into slime. We kept the cage on the porch for several weeks, but nothing changed. Finally, as the weather turned colder, the cage got put away for the Winter and forgotten about.
Fast forward 4-5 months. A few weeks ago, one of the kids rediscovered the cage and found what we thought was a huge butterfly. After a little research, we found that it was a Luna Moth. Its wingspan was 4.5″ and it was a beautiful lime green. It was alive and well so it must have only recently come out of its “gunk”. I read on the internet that late season caterpillars will “overwinter” instead of coming out of their cocoon in a few weeks like the earlier caterpillars. That would explain why ours hibernated for so long before making his debut.
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