By the end of the first week and a half, all five caterpillars had formed pupae cases in the aquarium. Two were placed on the upper inner rim of the screen lid. Two formed their cases in one upper corner of the aquarium, and one forumed on the underside of a hyacinth leaf.
So I went back to the swamp and got four more caterpillars that were still feeding on the frog-bit plants. For the first couple days I continued to feed them frog-bit, to see if they would switch to the hyacinth leaves on their own, if not I will remove the frob-bit leaves. Within three days the caterpillars discovered the hyacinth leaves and chose those over the frog-bit plants. So increasingly the water hyacinth became the perferred food.
In inspection of the rest of the aquarium it seems that the water hyacinth plants are chosen more frequently by aquatic creatures for egg-laying sites. The under portions of many lower leaves and the root bulbs are covered with white egg cluster cases of unknown identification at this time. Plus the water beetles have been busy laying eggs within the sections of leaves. On the evening of the 12th day, a newly emerged Green Midge (Tanytarsus spp.), was spotted. It's wiggly body was spotted on a slightly submerged water hyacinth leaf. It is struggling to free its self from a thin string of a spider web.
