Swallowtail Caterpillar Pupa

Here is my Swallowtail Caterpillar GreTi as of July 7th, 2019.

GreTi is a very active caterpillar.

 Eats a lot and poops a lot.

I clean up the garden before every feeding.

 This needs to be done everyday in this aquarium garden.

Replace remains of old leaves with a new bouquet.

You can see more details about caterpillar care in my previous videos.

 July 9th GreTi pooped liquid instead of usual round solid poops.

This time, the caterpillar does not eat.

 It even ignores its favorite dill, but keeps crawling around looking for something.

Eventually it settled up on a leaf and made a pupa.

 I attached the leaf with the pupa to a chopstick for further observations.

The following part of the video was recorded in time-lapse mode.

 It allows viewing of the transformations the pupa goes through.

There are a lot of actions going on inside of the cocoon.

 The time-lapse recording reveals an intruder that apparently sneaked in on the leaf.

The intruder is a different type of caterpillar.

I find different critters in all wild samples all the time.
More about it in a different video ;)

This tiny intruder managed to eat some remains of the leaf even under the sticky tape.

And then it left in search of more food.

The color of this pupa start changing on the 4th day.

There are some noticeable actions going inside of the cocoon everyday.

 I don't see any movements inside of the cocoon after 14 days.

 It can take from couple weeks to many months for the Swallowtail caterpillar to fully develop into a butterfly.

And there is no guarantee of success...

I stopped observation of this pupa after 43 days.

Have fun and happy butterflies :)