Caterpillar's strange behaviour.

[Pamela Moresby]

Oneday I saw a small caterpillar knocking it's head on a leaf. Picked it up to see what was wrong with it.
It slowly shed it's skin. Put it on a low place inside near a leaf of food. Find quite often caterpillars can fall without any known reason. This was, before I read it sheds it's skin quite often.
regards
Pam
from Auckland NZ

[Megathymus ursus]

The molting process is laborious and stressful, and yes, the larvae often make jerky motions to wrest themselves from the old skins.