Ladybird Metamorphosis Day 3-13
- Day 3: The next morning the Pupa had turned from orange to black. From the front view one can make out the rudimentary shape of what will in 11 days become the pronatum.  The head is safely tucked under and hidden from view.
- Day 3: From time to time the pupa will erect itself to reveal its elementary underbody parts. These are now starting to resemble recognizable ladybird features. Â The the black and spiky, root-like base from which the pupa appears to be sprouting from is what is left of the larva body.
- From day 4 to 13 the pupa went through the same ritual. Most of the time it would be hunched-up in the dormant state only to spring into activity by gradually rising itself up! Â Although I have captured every single day’s growth I don’t want to bore you with repetitious images so here I have jumped to day 13. As you can see the pupa has grown in size and the emergence of the imago is immanent!
- From day 4 to 7 there was the usual ritual of activity. However, the pupa appeared dormant from day 8 to 11 and I was beginning to worry that perhaps it had died. I needn’t have worried because on day 12 it sprung back to life again. This capture is from day 12 and shows the pupa beginning to rise from its four days of inactivity.
- Taken from day 13 this clearly shows how far the pupa has developed since day 1. In the course of watching the pupa develop I have learnt that the pupa isn’t an ‘immobile blob’ as is often described but is constantly changing and transforming itself, while its days are punctuated with moments of sprouting-up. From this upright position it is more vulnerable to prey and so will drop down to its hunched-up position at the slight detection of any movement. Day 14 was the big day when the ladybird finally burst out of its pupal case but that’s the subject of my next post.
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