A CATERPILLAR’S TALE

 

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

16/IX/2025

 

As I walked out of the front door today, there was a little chill in the air. The weather felt good and one was happy that the plants got a breather after the intense heat and rain that they had to bear in the months gone by.

 

As usual, I checked the bird feeder. It was empty. The ‘refill’ container is kept amongst the pots next to the fish tubs. As I bent over to pick it up, a very strange looking item caught my attention at the bottom of the tub.

 

It couldn’t be a snake, or a caterpillar. It did look like a bloated one alright. To remove it from the tub was my first priority before it contaminated the water of the tub. By the size of it, it appeared as if it had ‘tanked-up’ lots of water and ballooned. The print on its body appeared to be that of a ‘viper’. It did take me a little while to identify it.

 

These days, slugs are sticking to leaves. They leave a silvery trail behind. It was not a slug but a caterpillar. Caterpillars too are abundant as butterflies have laid their eggs and they are on the rampage, chewing and munching away on leaves.

 

Once, I was confident that this was a harmless creature, it should get a decent burial in one of the pots, as it appeared dead after drowning. How long had it been at the bottom of the tub? I don’t know. It could have been overnight.

 

Poor guy must have climbed up from the side of the tub, or onto a bush overhanging the tub and lost its balance and fell in. With no choice but to drink water, it swelled up to the size bigger than my middle finger. I felt sad for it, but why not give it a chance to live was a passing thought.

 

My wife joined me in the garden. I showed my catch to her. It was she who noticed that the caterpillar wriggled and moved a little. His antenna was tweaking. Thank God it was alive. What contamination it must have done to the water is not known, but at least he could go back to his hiding place in the garden now that it had been set free.

 

Today, I went to check on the condition of the caterpillar which I had left in one of the pots, just in case it moved away to safety. There was no change in its shape or stance. It lay there the way one had left it. I just let it be. Surprisingly, no bird took it away.

 

It was time to take his photo and keep it in the records. It was also a warning for me to check for any such creatures which could inadvertently fall into the fish tubs. This guy must have scared the daylight out of the mollies in that tub.

 

I waited a day to see if it moved away. It is still alive, puffed up and swollen. May it live to transform into a beautiful insect. Google tells me that it is a caterpillar of a huge moth called the ‘AGRIUS CONVOLVULI’ or the Hawk moth. Why are their names so difficult?

 

It was breakfast time and time to key in my thoughts. How can one avoid a caterpillar falling in the tub? I wonder!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND
©® NOEL ELLIS