Don't eat Garnish!
So, um, remember those three monarch caterpillars I told you about?
They all came from the same milkweed plant. One egg per leaf (presumably laid by the same butterfly?), all hatching within 3 days of each other. But what a difference a day makes.
This weekend the oldest and biggest caterpillar, which looks to be on its 4th or 5th instar already, was sitting on one end of a milkweed leaf. Its much smaller sibling, maybe 2nd or 3rd instar at the most, was sitting near the middle of the leaf. I went outside to get more leaves, and when I came back maybe 15 minutes later, big caterpillar was sitting where little caterpillar had been. And little caterpillar was gone.
So what happened? Read on for that plus the naming contest results after the jump:
It turns out that monarch caterpillars can be cannibals. They are very hungry, especially after the 3rd instar, so if food is scarce they will eat each other. In this case food was not scarce, but clearly the big one didn't know that.
The upshot: I had been thinking of naming them like my previous two caterpillars after MSNBC hosts, in this case Chrysalis Matthews and Melissa Harris 'Pillar. But not wanting to associate either of them with cannibalism, I have now decided to name the smaller one (per icekat's suggestion) Garnish. As in "Don't eat the..." What's the name of the cannibalistic one? My daughter wants to name it, so that remains to be announced.
Also, despite the picture above, each of my remaining two has its own shoebox home now! I'm not taking any more chances!
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Such is the way of Monarchs!
So THIS is what R. Priebus meant when he was talking about the war on caterpillars.
Big ones eat the little ones.
Seems that lately we have seen that behavior in another species.
I think we should speak to Rush Limbaugh about this.
Oh, there's a tea party / moderate Republican metaphor in there somewhere.
Sorry, just finished watching "The Newsroom" from yesterday. ;)
I think I know a secret about Chris Christie.
Is that where my Volkswagon went?
Perhaps you should put the victor in an iron mask?
Rush would probably eat them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CHRISTIE DOES! LOL
Name change-Voltaire?
Monarchs who cannibalize each other? Sounds like Game of Thrones to me! I suggest "Stark" and "Lannister."
Scientific Proof That Republicans Eat Their Young
Click here for references.
Republican Immigration Policy caused The Great Recession.
Real estate value represents over half of accumulated US wealth, and real estate value depends upon population.
Wealth is destroyed when real estate abandonment becomes common, and real estate is abandoned only when population declines.
The most important changes are periods of unusually high unemployment and poverty. California personal value dropped from 2007 for the first time since 1938 (Legislative Analysis Office, California, 2009).
Every period of economic decline corresponds with population decline.
These are as follows.
Illegal immigrants contribute about $200 billion in GSP across the entire US right now. That consumer demand employs about 10 million US residents.
Three important events occur from 2000 to 2006 during the Bush presidency.
These regulatory changes cause real estate prices and stock prices to skyrocket as investors borrow as much money as is possible. The Bush legislation in 2003 legalizes predatory lending, which is intended to restore economic losses that followed the attack of September 11, 2001 (usury decriminalized).
This deregulation creates rapid economic growth. Illegal immigrants flood into the country at the highest rate since the Mexican Revolution. A construction boom begins in the American south and west as hundreds of thousands of excess dwellings are constructed.
The following begins in 2006.
The Mexican economy improves in 2007, and the US population begins to decline. Population decline creates over a million extra dwelling vacancies by 2009.
Real estate prices plummet in 2007 and a foreclosure boom begins in 2008 as foreclosure rates increase by 400%.
Pres. Bush finally realizes the magnitude of the coming disaster caused by eliminating depression era financial regulations. Bush signs the Emergency Mortgage Loan Modification Act of 2007 in an attempt to prevent the coming banking system collapse, but it is too late.
Real estate value depends upon people to demand dwellings in which to live (US Census Bureau).
Immigration departing the US accounts for a drop of about 1.6% in the population in less than 2 years.
Each US resident creates consumer demand for real estate, vehicles, food, and consumer goods, and that consumer demand includes illegal immigrants.
The illegal immigrant population of Arizona produced $42 billion in GSP during 2008, and immigrant population decline is one of the underlying causes for economic collapse in the American south and west (Immigration Policy Center, 2011).
Birth nearly equals mortality during this period, so this population change is entirely due to migration that contributes the following to the US economy.
The following shows how migration contributed to part of the decline in US real estate values, which collapses real estate value in the American south and west.
The resulting foreclosure boom and real estate collapse in 2007 leaves inadequate asset recovery from foreclosure sales, which reduces bank assets to dangerously low levels.
There is no recession in Texas which encourages immigration.
Banks issue margin calls for stock market investments to cover lending losses in an attempt to avoid bankruptcy.
Margin calls result in rapid trading that collapses the stock market. Over 60% of value is lost from 2007 to 2009 as the population declines.
Investment firms, banks, and businesses lose sufficient capitol that they cannot cover the losses, and the US government is forced to issues loans in order to prevent total economic collapse and double digit unemployment.
This chain of events halts the startup of new businesses, at the same time that millions of jobs are lost in manufacturing, real estate, construction, finance, and investment.
Departure of 5 million immigrants raised unemployment by about 4 million from 2007 to 2009.
A return of 2.6 million immigrants reduced unemployment by about 2 million from 2009 to 2011.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Aliens.aspx
"..with some fava beans and a nice Chianti."
Name the cannibal "Mittens"
we all know he'd eat his young if he thought it would advance his career...
I'm sure there's a brilliant political analogy in this story somewhere. :P
Yikes! I meant to humorously suggest that people shouldn't eat little Garnish. I had no idea Monarchs could be cannibals!
Me neither! And I like the name because NOBODY should!
Ditto.
KInd of brings a yuk factor to something beautiful.
We have a lot of milkweed in our butterfly garden and have noticed that one day there can be a dozen or so monarch caterpillers then a day or so later only a couple. I always thought it was birds or lizards getting them. I guess that the 'food chain' includes cannibalism too.
The little one on the left was "GOP"
The big one on the right is "Right Wing"
And the leaves are of course tea leaves which accounts for the malnourished fiends feeding on each other.
If they (the catpillars) were on a hemp plant... They woulld be cannabis cannables
And if they were tent caterpillars they would be under canopies or if they were in the wrong field they could wind up in a can of peas or if...
Wonder if they would turn red like the grasshoppers in the canned green beans? Used to have a Stokley's canning plant in our area and the guys who worked there said the grasshoppers were easy to spot because they turned bright red after they were cooked, Ugh.
I think that there is no greater therapy for anyone who is having mental issues than to just sit back and watch the republicans on display. I mean these guys can make a psycho look sane.
Oh, no. Gives new meaning to "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".
I think the remaining caterpillar's name should be One Percent.
I agree, lol