Okay, let me talk about something I do know a little about. Now, many caterpillars change color before they pupate. Sometimes it's subtle, like how Sulphurs become more translucent and a little "glowy", as I call them. Other cats do a complete wardrobe change - without even molting! I've never read a good explanation for why this occurs. I'm thinking chemical changes after the gut purge?
Anyway, for a long time I was irked by my books because they would say how the Spicebush Swallowtail turns "golden" when they are about to pupate. And I would yell, "Are you blind?! They turn orange!" Case in point...
I mean, if that thing was in the woods, a hunter would know not to shoot it because he's clearly wearing his blaze orange!
But then one year, I raised a couple of Spicebush Swallowtails I found at Grandma's in West Virginia. And they were more on the yellow side. Dare I say, "golden"?
And then there's my latest acquisition, who you may remember got mailed to me on a Spicebush plant I ordered from north Florida.
He's not very orange, either. I did read somewhere a while ago, that there are some lepidopterists that believe the Spicebush Swallowtails this far south may actually be a subspecies. That might explain the color difference. I don't think it's based on what they eat because I've fed them a variety of their host plants and they all end up the same color. Something to research, for sure.
