Laying Eggs

I arrived home from a meeting this morning to a flutter of movement on my swan plant.  

I found this beautiful lady laying eggs.  you can see in the first photo that her abdomen is 'missing'.  That's because, as seen in the second photo, it's curled around to lay eggs on the underside of the leaves.

Sadly it is too late in the year for these eggs to complete their cycle as butterflies, but while I was watching her laying I noticed that I have some caterpillars on the plant too.  One of them is big enough to be turning into a chrysalis within the next few days.  Unfortunately the chrysalis will need warmth to complete the process and create a butterfly, and we're well into autumn temperatures so that's not likely to happen.

Check out Walking Wombat's "May macro mayhem" challenge and join the fun!