Isn't this a beauty? My student, IS, picked this up and gave it to me coz I mentioned during one of my Bio lessons that I love caterpillars. It has a name, given by Ch. She insists that this caterpillar is a SHE, and its name is Nae-mi (probably coz it rhymes like the word "name").

I was quite worried that it would undergo metamorphosis pretty quickly coz it seemed very stressed when I got it initially. IS was nice, and he put in a variety of leaves for Nae-mi. After a day of fasting, it finally settled for a leaf that looked like an Ixora's.

The other worrying thing was that when I got it, it actually broke into 2 parts the next day. Ch saw it and exclaimed "Nae-mi broke her buttocks!" And its head too! Scary... coz the last time when I kept this caterpillar, I din really see this phenomenon. And it happened twice so far. After a Google search, I discover that Nae-mi is actually molting! Yeah! Means that it's growing out of its exoskeleton! Haha, and the head that "dropped".. is actually the head capsule that is shed during molting.

Hopefully, I can witness the pupating part as well as the metamorphosis into a moth. It's like another experiencing another birth again!

Read about caterpillars here.