Jaz the Caterpillar

A little more than three weeks ago, I noticed a large caterpillar on my jasmine plant. I have a few plants on my balcony, and it really brightens up my day to see them the several times a day I go up there to take care of laundry. For a couple days, I carefully watched the caterpillar and began to get concerned that he would kill my small jasmine with his voracious appetite. I decided to put him a in a jar, so I could pick leaves from various parts of the plant and see if he would eat anything else. Well, once I set a "home" up for him inside the house, I realized I was committed to keeping and raising him.

The first thing to do was see if he would eat anything besides jasmine leaves. I researched what kind of caterpillar he was - finally figuring out he was a 'death's head hawk moth caterpillar.' Turns out there are three species, two are found in the Asia and the other Europe. I was able to find the most information on the European kind, but this turned out to be not very helpful. Apparently, European caterpillars will eat lettuce and cabbage - not so my Asian caterpillar. I did find that he would eat the leaves of another one of my plants, but it was also quite small. With such a voracious appetite, I wasn't sure either of my plants would be able to survive, but I couldn't just leave him to die now! I carefully fed him leaves of both plants and began considering trying to find another jasmine plant or even surreptitiously sneaking a few leaves from neighbor's plants along the street.

On the first day of school, I decided to officiously declare the caterpillar a part of school. We had already been taking care of him together - picking and feeding him leaves, watching him eat, cleaning up the frass (caterpillar poop). We felt he must have a name. After various suggestions, mostly regarding his appearance, I hit upon Jaz for the jasmine plant on which he was found. All the children thought this was perfect. So Jaz became part of our school. I did remind the children that when he turned into a moth, we would let him go!

On the morning of the second day of school, I noticed that Jaz had turned an odd orangish color and was trying to bury himself in the shallow dirt of his enclosure. That was the sign he was ready to pupate. Hooray, my plants were saved! I quickly got a more suitable container with a more dirt so he could bury himself properly. I called the kids, and we all watched him quickly push under the dirt. He was fast! I told the kids we needed to leave the container alone for a few days, as Jaz would be really vulnerable.

After three or four days, I carefully brushed away the dirt above the place where Jaz was buried. He had made himself a little hollow of hardened dirt. I gently broke a small hole in the case, so we could peer in at the cocoon. Jaz surprised me by squirming a bit. From then, it was a waiting game. From what I had read, I expected it to be about 3 weeks until he emerged. I also knew that the cocoon would become black before the exciting event.

I carefully removed the dirt covering to get a good look.

Two weeks after he had buried himself, I noticed that the cocoon seemed to be becoming darker. In fact, in just a few hours it noticeably darkened further. Even though it was early, I decided to place netting over the container to be ready for the "hatching." We all hoped to be able to see the actual event, but in the case it was at night, we didn't want Jaz flying around loose in the house.

Here the dirt case is replaced.

The next morning, Calla woke me early. The first thing I did was check on Jaz. Things appeared to be unchanged. I did my normal morning routine, then settled on the couch to check on the world via Facebook. A moment later, I noticed some fluttering out of the corner of my eye. I looked more closely and saw a moth fluttering around the house! This couldn't just be coincidence. I ran over to the container on the dining room table. The netting looked mostly in place, but a bit of it had been slightly pushed up. The cocoon was still mostly concealed by the little dirt cave Jaz had created, and the part I could see seem whole. I carefully removed the netting and the dirt covering. Sure enough, the hidden part of the cocoon was slit open!


I had really expected the disturbance in the container to be obvious if Jaz had emerged. And I did not expect that he would so actively try to push his way out. I thought he would calmly sit and dry his wings for the 6 hours required. But no, it seems he had been very secretive in his activities. Either he had hatched very shortly after I had gone to bed, or he hadn't waited the full time for his wings to harden. Now I had to find him before he got lost in the house and died or made his way out without the kids ever getting to see him in his moth form!

I spent nearly an hour going from room to room, searching without success. Hollis, then Simeon, the Meriel awoke. I delivered the news to each. Hollis stared wide-eyed and serious. Simeon wailed, "I didn't get to see him and now he's gone!" Meriel calmly noted, "If I couldn't see him hatch, I at least wanted to see him as a moth." Not knowing what else to do other than wait to see if Jaz would appear on his own, I began to get ready for breakfast. I stepped into the "dressing room," a small windowless room in the middle of the house where we keep our clothes, to get shorts for Calla. I switched on the light and happened to look directly above the door, and there was Jaz! I don't know if I had somehow missed him earlier or if he had moved, but I was certainly relieved. I excitedly called the children. I woke up Eris to come see. We looked, exclaimed, and took pictures. His size of 2 1/2 inches made me suspect he was the smaller of the two Asian species (Acherontia styx). (I am uncertain as to whether he was actually male, but it seemed easier to pick a pronoun rather than to say "it.")

 So we all got to see Jaz as a moth. Even though we didn't get to see his emergence, his escape made the event quite exciting. When Philip awoke, we quickly alert him to Jaz's whereabouts so his wing wouldn't get clipped by a shutting door. Philip helped on get him into a jar to take him outside. Jaz flapped and buzzed rather alarmingly in the large jar, but we got him up onto the balcony onto the trunk of a potted tree. Each time we checked on him throughout the day, he appeared not to have stirred. We hoped him wasn't injured. I saw him at about 6:30 shortly before it began to get dark. When I went up again about an hour later, he was gone.

So our science experiment from munching caterpillar to buried cocoon to moth flying away in the night was a success! I'm think the children will remember this experience for the rest of their lives; I know I will.