The Natives are Restless

The hickory horned devils are preparing to exit their egg cases.  This evening we were able to observe them, via a macro lens on the camera,  moving about inside the egg. In the still pictures you can see the darkening areas of the individual eggs. This is the developing, almost mature embryo that will hatch as a tiny caterpillar- the first instar of the larva.  In the 27 second movie clip below if you look on the far right side of the frames at the darkest egg you will see movement inside. The movement starts as soon as the clip starts and you will have to look close to see the larva moving. (In the bottom right corner of the video you can make it full screen which enables you to view the movement better although it's a little blurry because I put a low resolution video up so it would load faster). We put walnut leaves in their enclosure so if they hatch during the night they can begin eating. The larva will go through about 5 instars between now and August/September until they finally have grown large enough and have enough energy to pupate. If you missed it the first post in this on going series is here.