Thanks, Ann! I do indeed spend a lot of time watching caterpillars. You know, it's funny, I remember back in school we were learning about different ways of obtaining information and simple observation was one. And I thought that sounded really boring and that the scientific method was a much better way to learn things. And then I started raising caterpillars! I have literally sat for hours watching them do things. And more hours waiting for them to do things. It seems like it took forever to see them reach those milestones like molting, making a chrysalis, and emerging as a butterfly. I remember nights I fought to stay awake to see stuff happen only to fail myself.
I had a teacher back in high school who had a PhD in philosophy (I was in the International Baccalaureate program) and he was a strange guy. He used to challenge us all to turn off our TVs; I can't even imagine how he dealt with students once smartphones came out. He used to yell at us a lot about watching nature instead. I remember one day it happened to be the equinox and he gave this whole talk about how people used to watch nature before there were televisions and he explained how they would watch the sun all year long. I looked him up on Facebook recently and he's really into birding. And every time I sit around staring at butterflies and caterpillars, it makes me wonder what he'd think of that!
And observation is so important because it's best to know what caterpillars normally do before you go experimenting on them. And then you can experiment on them! Sometimes it's just to see what foods they will accept in captivity but there is so much research going on these days! Better solar panels from studying wing scales and such.
Meredith, that is quite the collection of butterflies! I just checked my records at BAMONA and I saw a Spring Azure years ago in WV and then I saw a Summer Azure last year in KY at the family cemetery. And I see you have the American Lady and the Painted Lady figured out! Very good! Also, that seems to be a male Tiger ST (not so much blue on them as the females) but send it down here anyway!
