Meredith, peek all you like just don't provoke them. They have the smelliest stinkhorns of all the Swallowtails, in my opinion. Although, the Palamedes are pretty bad, too. I still don't understand how they can eat such nice-smelling plants and yet smell so bad themselves.
They naturally build those leaf-shelters so I would be more worried if they weren't in hiding. Just keep giving them fresh food and keep the cage clean and they should be fine. Also, don't be freaked out when they gut purge. Have you raised any kind of Swallowtail before? Also, they will turn yellow-orange before they pupate so that's normal. If I didn't know my caterpillar changed color, I would probably freak out when it happened. Give kudos to your husband on the caterpillar condo!
Sadly, my Spicebushies are not doing well. Of the eggs that did hatch, only one is alive. I still have some eggs that are gray, but never hatched. And some were gray, turned clear, but there is no caterpillar. I'm wondering if I have a predator in the container somewhere? There were these very small bugs in the container, but I thought they were something that naturally came in with the Spicebush. Also, my big Spicebushies are eating, pooping, but have stopped growing. I had this happen with a Spicebush cat last year and I don't know what causes it. I'm giving them both Spicebush and Sassafras to eat, but I wonder if it's a virus or bacteria? Maybe the county sprayed for mosquitoes? It's depressing.
My Sulphurs are still doing fine and I do have a Cloudless among all the Orange-Barreds. I also saw a new (to me) butterfly the other day! I'm going to leave you in suspense for now until I get my external hard drive and hook it up to Mom's computer. My laptop got picked up by FedEx yesterday and is on the way to Dell repair so I haven't had computer access like usual.
