Friendy's cocoon

Two nights ago, after the boys were in bed, Rob and I watched as our jarred caterpillar Friendy began spinning himself a cocoon. He had been so completely inactive for the few days prior that we’d almost written him off for dead, when suddenly yesterday, after Will placed a fresh pear leaf in the jar, Friendy launched into a flurry of activity. He climbed all over the jar and up onto the screen lid, produced about a dozen caterpillar poops and then finally settled on the underside of the leaf as a good place to build a little cocoon for himself.

Rob and I watched as he folded his body into a tight u-shape and spun nearly translucent spider-web like strands around himself. Last night we could still see his caterpillar body working within the growing cocoon.

By morning he had hidden himself completely within an white inch-long capsule of a cocoon. Will was as excited by Friendy’s transformation as Rob and I.

“Now he made it through his whole life,” he said.

I agreed that it was true that Friendy has completed his life as a free-roaming caterpillar. And now we’re all hoping that one day we’ll see Friendy re-emerge for his second life as a lovely drab moth.