molting action pix

I finally managed to catch Speedy when she was molting, and I got a few crappy pictures through the plastic terrarium. This picture was taken when she was still in the process of inching out of her old skin.

When they're freshly molted, the head and lighter parts of the body are pale and colorless, and it takes a few minutes for their face to turn black again.

In this picture, the old head capsule is still stuck to her face. She got the rest of the way out of her old skin, waggling her butt a little to make sure she was free, then took her old head
in her hands and turned it over and examined it, all Hamlet-like, before tossing it to the bottom of the terrarium. She rested and meditated for about half and hour, then went back and ate her old skin before moving on to the parsley.

She's a big, fat instar 5 now. In a few days she'll start getting ready to pupate.