Chomp!

A few days ago I found a patch of milkweed that had been lovingly chosen by a monarch butterfly (or butterflies) and was dotted with caterpillars, mostly quite small (and some really tiny). Today I went back to reinvestigate - the caterpillars were much bigger, so I scooped a couple of them up and took them home to be photographed. They don't like being moved around much, but so long as they are still they quite happily get back to the business of eating milkweed, which is what they are designed to do. They poop a lot too - honestly, the stuff goes straight through them.

(I put them back where I found them of course.)

Looking at this picture made me wonder if caterpillars are blind. Apparently they are not - quite - they are sensitive to light at least. Can't spot the eyes on this one - there should be six pairs somewhere!