Isloated 3

This monarch caterpillar has spent the last 3 days on a plant with no leaves, no shoots, only hard stems the other 'pillars couldn't stomach. They left 3 days ago and are already pupated having stripped the plant bare and fleeing while still at 3/4 size. For them there was no choice, all the food was gone. But this one perseveres; in this heat it has already spent nearly 50% more time that it should in this phase, wandering (I calculate) about 16 meters a day all over this husk of food, nibbling stubbornly at woody stems, determined to gnaw some sort of sustenance out of whatever scraps it may find, determined to reach full size.

Watching it hammer and grind away is surprisingly inspiring considering its a buggy sack of green juice.