UCO pt. 2 All Moths Make Silk

Hey Guys!

Remember the Unidentified Crawling Object I found in university a day ago and then brought it home because it looked lost and then it kinda stopped moving so I poked it with a stick and at first it wiggled around a bit but in the evening I poked it with a stick and it didn't move so I thought it might be dying? Well if you didn't you can read about it here. Anyway turns out it wasn't dying at all! Around the evening time, little U.C.O got really agitated and active and it turns out, it was simply building itself a cocoon!

Little U.C.O weaving a silken cocoon

A cocooon is a bag, woven from a silken thread produced near the mouthparts of caterpillars that protects the growing larva within! All caterpillars can produce silk but only moth larvae construct a cocoon for themselves. A little trivia for all of you out there, a moth's silken cocoon is unique in that if one were to unravel the strands of silk, you would find about three to four meters of only one single strand! Looks like U.C.O decided to make its cocoon underneath a hibiscus leaf which was originally there for it to eat.

And look, a couple of hours later here's the completed Chrysalis inside its protective silken and leaf cocoon.

Doesn't it look simply cozy!!! I modified the plastic cup slightly by cutting away one side and replacing it with a cloth netting so that when the adult emerges it can crawl up the netting to spread out and dry its wings! I love making stufff~ Anyway this is how it looks like

Pretty nifty ain't it?

So I guess one mystery of the U.C.O has been solved. It's definitely a moth larvae (cuz of the cocoon) but what will emerge from it in about two weeks time, I wonder? Well, I can hardly wait!


PINATA! PINATA!