About one month later, on 5-18-2005, most of the larvae were fully grown and many had pupated in the sleeve. Many more had survived than I expected and they had completely stripped the foliage on the branch. A number of hungry larvae that were still not mature were released to fend for themselves on nearby Ceanothus, their chances of survival now greatly increased due to being near fully grown. The images below show the scene...
These larvae were collected on Ceanothus flowers in mid April, 2004, and raised in the lab.
Here they are about 6 days later.
They grow and mature quickly. Here are the mature larvae, 10 days later.
Here is a complete sequence of a larvae molting into the pupal stage.
A few days later, these pupae have dried and hardened.