I wandered through the arboretum for a bit this afternoon, between rainstorms. Some of the milkweed plants have been stripped bare by the caterpillars. There is a little patch of milkweed in the avocado grove that still has leaves, but they won't last long at the rate they're going.

I caught these two caterpillars having a serious discussion about who should eat the leaf they were both on.


Stuck in the middle, a silent third party: an egg that appeared ready to hatch. I didn't even see this until after I downloaded the picture from my camera. I just hope the tiny caterpillar had time to hatch and crawl away before one of those big guys ate that leaf. It surely would eat the egg right along with it.