Well, after a week since last cat went into the dirt, I decided to dig up the known 13 I had put in the box. As usual, I was a bit apprehensive, always fearing something could go wrong. It did. I lost 4 of them. They died as pupae, but were still dark and dead. Oh well. That's nature. If not for natural deaths, we'd all be knee-deep in hornworms and hawk moths!

I now have 9 healthy pupae and put them back in the dirt. I can still really feel good about this because I only found 19 larvae in the first place, ranging from just out of the ovum all the way to 2.5 inches. 7 of them were just under two inches and 10 under 1 inch, so a lot of care went into rearing these beautiful cats.

Still, that is NOT bad at all, considering it's a 50 percent survival rate to pupation. These moths will be released into the wild. Host plants are still abundant, too.