Metamagicalmorphosis

In my garden mini-meadow, a minor miracle is underway.

For a few weeks now, these little creatures have been prominent, munching away at my Bird’s-foot Trefoil leaves.

They are the caterpillars of Six-spot Burnet Moths, whose parents colonised the meadow last summer in a blaze of red-spotty glory.

And now the caterpillars are fully gorged on their very specific vegan diet, it is time for them to make the transition. It’s time to grow up. It’s time to metamorphosise.

And what a process that is. To effectively turn most of your tissues into a soup that rearranges itself into something that looks totally different is just astonishing, and a testament to what evolution can do when given millions of years to come up with creative solutions to becoming an adult.

In the Very Hungry Caterpillar (which of course has been in the news lately due to the passing of its author, Eric Carle), his caterpillar makes a cocoon for the process. A cocoon is a protective case of silk in which the pupa can form. As Eric has explained, ‘poetry won over science’ because what emerged from his cocoon was a butterfly, whereas only a few butterflies in the world create a cocoon.

However, many moths do, including the various species of burnet moth.

So, when they are ready, the Six-spot Burnet caterpillars climb up a strong, vertical flower or grass stem in the meadow, they squidge themselves up a bit so they are not too long...

...and they then spin silk from a spinneret which is on their lower lip. It is actually a modified saliva gland. The silk covers the caterpillar in a golden case, pointed at both ends, in which the transformation can occur.

This mind-bending, body-rearranging change will be happening in flower-rich meadows across the whole country and the coccons are easy to overlook if you don’t know what you’re looking for, but once you do they become quite easy to find.

Although Six-spot Burnet Moths and their close relative, the Narrow-bordered Five-spot, are still quite unusual in gardens, the more of us that create mini-meadows that include Bird’s-foot Trefoil and Meadow Vetchling (which is the main foodplant of the Narrow-bordered), the more I’m convinced that they could go from being a rare garden visitor to a regular sight.

And this is what will hopefully come bursting out of my cocoons in just a few weeks’ time – one of our most glorious day-flying moths which will clamour to feed on the mini-meadow flowers such as the knapweeds that are coming into bud right now.

Now that's magic!