I came across this little guy crawling along the edge of the compost bin while out gardening this weekend. At first I just thought he was really grubbing - he also has some tiny bits of leaves stuck to him. Then I realized he was covered in all these little shiny eggs - he didn't photograph well because he kept squirming around, but you can make them out in the picture.
My guess is he's not going to have a great life...nor make it to adulthood in the form of a butterfly or moth. At some point those eggs are going to hatch, and he'll get eaten alive by something like parasitic wasps.
I don't know if the caterpillar would normally go on to be a bad critter such as a cabbage white butterfly, or something big, beautiful and beneficial. Let's hope he wasn't going to be something great, and that the eggs are going to hatch lots of little beneficial parasitic wasps that take out caterpillars that want to eat up all the veggies. Circle of life...
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