Costa Rican Caterpillars

         Living in Costa Rica for as long as I have has given me the opportunity to see all kinds of beautiful animals and insects, caterpillars being among them. I'm not sure exactly what it is about caterpillars that catches my attention but I love finding strange and cool looking caterpillars. You can ask anyone that knows me well that I have an obsession with trying to spot caterpillars in nearby trees or plants. At various points in my life I have caught caterpillars and kept them in an old glass aquarium in my room. My little brother, Wyatt, and I would change the leafs when needed and wait with lots of excitement for the caterpillars to pupate (pupate is the word used to describe the process of a caterpillar turning into a cocoon or chrysalis) and then hatch as beautiful butterflies or moths. Wyatt and I would often go off in search of caterpillars. Over time we came up with our own terminology for different caterpillar signs that we would find. For example: Any eaten leafs that appeared to be nibbled on we called "nibblets". Another word that we would use was "frass" and it isn't our word but the proper word for the droppings of phytophagous or "plant-eating" insects. So "frass" and "nibblets" were what we looked for and by doing this we found many caterpillars.

       I regret not taking more pictures of the caterpillars that I have found but I have taken a few. Caterpillars are kinda hard to photograph due to their small size and details. Someday I hope to buy a get a better camera with a macro lens but until I do Ill have to make do with what I got. :) Here are a few pictures of a couple caterpillars that I managed to take pictures of. 

This is a caterpillar that I found living on a palm tree outside one of my classroom windows. In total I counted seven of these caterpillars on two palm tree bushes.

The following three pictures are of a caterpillar egg and the caterpillar that hatched from the egg. 

These eggs are a bit larger that the point of a ball point pen.   

This is the caterpillar the day that it hatched. After it hatched it ate the old egg shell in order to get all the nutrients it could as it started its new little life.

This is not the same caterpillar that hatched from the egg but it is one of the same kind that I found already full grown. It is about 3in long and 1/2in fat in the middle. I was lucky enough to see this guy pupate and hatch into a brown and orange butterfly with big yellow eye shapes on its wings.

This is a saddle back caterpillar. If you haven't figured out just by looking at it, it gets its name due to the brownish saddle shape on its back. Saddle backs are just one of the many stinging kinds of caterpillars in Costa Rica and trust me when I say that they don't feel good. I have been stung multiple times by these caterpillars and they usually cause a big splotchy welt around the sting and it stings for about an hour.

This Caterpillar I saw in a butterfly garden. It eventualy turns into a Blue Morpho Butterfly and the Morpho Butterfly is the national butterfly of Costa Rica.

This guy is just your common old black fuzzy caterpillar. I like this picture because sometimes you fail to notice the orange colors and spiny shapes on these guys.

Hope you have enjoyed these pictures of just a few caterpillars that I have found. Hopefully next time you come across a caterpillar while gardening or on a walk you wont squish or kill it, but take a moment to observe and admire the fine details and colors found on these amazing creatures.