Ahead and behind

Two of the cats I'm following, Faith and Willow (who I got the wrong way round in my last post), have now entered fifth grade. Faith shed her skin two or three days ago and Willow followed up today.

This was Willow yesterday:

And today:

She has outgrown her seat leaf:

The next two pictures show Faith, today:

Allowing 17-18 days for the 5th instar and two or three for pupation, both these caterpillars should pupate in May.

At the other extreme, I found a freshly moulted 3rd grader, Xander, the other day. He must have spent the winter as a second grader - something that happens relatively frequently here:

He is feeding up fast and will probably shed his skin again before very long, to enter 4th grade:

Most of my other cats are currently in 4th grade.

Guy