Developmentally, I'm sure that Chibi has grown. I think this may be his second or third instar. I found a casing this morning. Crawly is still doing fine. He's a more active bug, but I'm glad he stays in his cage. What's interesting is how he keeps himself clean. Well, I guess that's what he's doing...
Wow. I feel awful. The middle bug was on the outside of the cage, and I accidentally smushed him just now while I was picking up the cage to inspect the bugs inside. I wished they'd hurry up and get bigger! I don't like being a bug killer.
Well, before the bad news, I was going to write about how Crawly seems to be cleaning his proboscis. He takes his front two legs and moves them up and down along his proboscis, and he does something similar with his antennae. He cleans each antenna one at a time. I like how he waves them up and down when he walks. I wonder why he waves one more vigorously sometimes than the other. Do bugs have "handedness"? I also noticed the black pads on his back. I'm guessing that is supposed to be the wing pads I've been reading about.
I've been trying to figure out how big these guys really get. Crawly looks like he's is quite a bit older than Chibi. I don't know how much bigger the bugs get with each molt. Chibi looks like he's grown a bit, but he's not that much bigger.
I wish I had a camera to take pictures with. I had to return the one I borrowed yesterday, and there's a 24 hr limit before being able to borrow again.
I wrote a lot about Crawly because he's easier to observe. Chibi is still very, and he's hard for me to see. He also doesn't venture far from the cotton pad (when it is moist). I will try experimenting on different pad locations, and seeing if he will move closer to the food.
I may tape down the nylon mesh to the cardboard frame today. I may have said that I used cheesecloth earlier, but I was mistaken.
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