Crunch, crunch caterpillar lunch

September is not being kind to insects and the caterpillars are struggling. On Wednesday, three of them were grazing on a makeshift dinner of cabbage leaves and by Thursday only two remained. Today that dwindled down to one. I am unsure whether these last few have managed to form into chrysalis or whether they have just perished. I have seen, in previous years caterpillars that have failed to go into their next life cycle phase and instead head towards walls and just climb as high as they could then hang there until the cold finally takes them. The other day I found one of the caterpillars creeping at a slow and steady pace across the pathway and heading towards the house - I picked it up and placed it back with its two remaining siblings as I was hoping that it would climb one of the plants and begin its spinning process to make a cocoon. I will search tomorrow to see if I can find evidence of one or more pupae ... I hope that at least one made it to the next phase of life.

Large Cabbage White caterpillars

The weather today has been extremely wet. The next county of Warwickshire had 15 cms of rain in three hours at some point this afternoon and Worcestershire wasn't far behind. Never has the back garden lawn been so sodden at this time of year - it is fast approaching a bog!