Outdoor Daily

Fascination of the grotesque!

I’ve written about Lilioceris lilii a couple of weeks ago, when I observed the mating, lines of eggs and hatchlings of the rather attractive Scarlet Lily Beetle [LINK].

Then I didn’t know what to expect, and in the last 12 days, grotesque shapes with tiny black heads and feet ‘buds’ appeared and, thanks to a ferocious apetite, they appear to grow and grow.

Today it got so large and messy that I looked it up: what we see on the outside is called ‘frass’, and it is not the larvae, but the green blobby mess of its own excreta. And if you look close, you can spot a much more coherent looking, orange shape lurking beneath.

So, almost literally, this creature is full of sh*t, the older it gets, the more it piles on. What a life!

Of course, there is purpose behind it all: the pile of excrement affords some protection against predators. Well, it would, wouldn’t it?

‘Every day is a school day’, as they say!