PoD - February 5th

So I'm about an hour late.  My bad.  I worked tonight so I didn't get home until about 11:45, which is why my post is late.  I feel like I let the whole team down! =(

 

Story:  I first saw one of these caterpillars caterpillar-ing around the pool deck on my birthday in Puerto Rico in October 2008.  I was instantly intrigued by this creature because a) I had never seen a caterpillar so large and b) it had such vibrant coloring.  Then, I spotted a whole tree of them that was conveniently located next to my lounge chair, and instead of sitting soaking up some sun, I literally spent the next 40 minutes watching, but not touching, all of these caterpillars.  They have this weird antenna thing on their butts and it moved around, so I was nervous that if I touched one it would poison me and I'd die.  So I was watching them munch on leaves and crawl around on the pool deck and other various surfaces, and obviously I had to capture a few great angles.  My favorite one is the second photo, where the little guy is inching along on the cement block because the angle of his head makes me laugh, and I also like how the details in the background are blurred.  The third one shows the true size of these critters, and that one wasn't even the largest that I saw that day.  Can you imagine if these caterpillars were this big in this stage of their lives, how big they would be as butterflies (or moths, for that matter)?  Like, I can picture such a monstrous butterfly post-chrysalis (or cocoon) stage...

What are your thoughts on these little guys?  I kind of wish I would have brought one home with me!