I returned to work after a two-day hiatus, and was greeted with an exciting buzz over cocoon couture in our Ecogarden! Well I’ll be! This workplace continues to throw up surprises!

Insect enthusiast and science educator, Li Hui filled me in on the details… Over the last few days, a mini truckload of Atlas Moth caterpillars were sighted in our great outdoors (a.k.a. Ecogarden exhibition) on our Camphor Tree, right alongside the leaf litter area.

The Camphor Tree must have been a host plant for the voracious caterpillars because it looked just about decimated when I sighted it! But it did seem to don a new ‘couture’. Decked with cocoons (misshapen tea bags) hanging from just about every bough, this little tree looked pretty ghostly in its lush green surroundings.

On closer inspection, there were yet a few stragglers that had yet to pupate, scavenging for the three or four remnant leaves that were intact but growing scarcer by the minute!  My colleagues and I snapped quite a few shots. I thought I’d share a few of them so you don’t think I made all this up after getting a bit balmy on my first day back to work!

Many thanks to Li Hui for generously contributing these amazing pictures.