Identification can be tricky because the larvae of some caterpillars can change in appearance as they get larger and molt their cuticle; this typically occurs four or five times in most larvae of butterflies and moths. An interesting thing I learned from the Enchanted Learning website is that: "after the molt, while the new skin is still soft, they swallow a lot of air, which expands their body. Then, when the cuticle hardens, they let the air out and have room for growth." The "Insects of Hawaii" website gave information on what my caterpillar ate, and Pentas was one of the plants on which it dines, thus explaining the sad looking state of the plant on my shelf. I placed the caterpillar in a big mason jar with a screen lid and supplied the hungry larva with lots of Pentas leaves. In the morning, I was happy to see that it had eaten many of them, reassuring me that the identification was likely accurate. But later that day I found that it had stopped eating... and moving for that matter. Oh dear! Had I done something wrong? Was it alive? I gave it another day, and still nothing.
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