rss Unknown Caterpillar
Location: Gilbert, AZ 85233
April 2, 2011 2:58 am
Hello,
Please help identify this caterpillar I found on a pansy flower in my garden in Gilbert Arizona (southeast Phoenix). I found it Feb. 26th. Thank you!
Signature: Lindsey
Variegated Fritillary Caterpillar
Hi Lindsey,
This pretty little caterpillar will metamorphose into the lovely Variegated Fritillary, Euptoieta claudia. You can see BugGuide to compare images of the caterpillar and to see the adult.
Black and Orange Catapillar
Location: Houston, Texas
March 21, 2011 9:46 pm
I found this caterpillar in the front yard on a ham and eggs(flower) plant on November 29 2010. It’s very spiky looking so I didn’t touch it. I wondered what kind of catapillar it is and what it turns into.
Signature: Thanks, Kelly Bufkin
Questionmark Caterpillar???
Hi again Kelly,
This is one of the Brush-Footed Butterfly Caterpillars. We looked up ham and eggs and found out it is lantana. Knowing the host plant might make identification easier, but we have not had any luck in our quick search. We suspect your caterpillar is in the subfamily Nymphalinae, and you might try finding a match on BugGuide, since time will not allow us to do further research at the moment. Just prior to posting, we did a final search and we believe this is a Questionmark Caterpillar, Polygonia interrogationis based on this photo on BugGuide, though BugGuide does not list lantana as a host.
Daniel, I found a chrysalis
Location: South Pasadena, CA
March 17, 2011 10:49 pm
I continue to have monarch caterpillars on the milkweed. Not so many – just two or three at a time. I’ve kept looking for a chrysalis, and I thought real hard about taking caterpillars captive. This morning I noticed the narcissus leaves looking droopy, and I was going to bundle them up. When I saw this! Hanging off the leaves. It’s smaller than I would have thought – smaller than a full grown caterpillar, and much smaller than a butterfly. I couldn’t get a very good picture, but wanted to share anyway. Fitting that it’s green.
Signature: Barbara
Monarch Chrysalis
Hi Barbara,
Thanks so much for sending us your photo of a Monarch Chrysalis. It is nice to hear your garden is supporting a healthy Monarch population. Often caterpillars leave a food plant to pupate.
Gulf Frit Cat, Silver Version?
Location: Orlando, Florida
February 20, 2011 7:25 pm
Hi Bugman. I was so excited and puzzled by my first caterpillar sighting since winter began. It looks like a gulf fritillary caterpillar but every one I’ve ever seen has been orange with black markings. This one is silver/gray with light orange stripes. It can’t be any other type of fritillary, can it? It was munching away on my passiflora incarnata. This one is a real beauty.
Signature: Elizabeth
Gulf Fritillary Caterpillar
Dear Elizabeth,
Your identification is correct. This is a Gulf Fritillary Caterpillar. According to BugGuide: “Larvae are generally orange with black branched spines and greenish-black stripes. There is a larval variant with purple/lavender stripes, seen mostly in Texas.” and here is an example of that color variation from Arizona that is posted to BugGuide.
Name that caterpillar
Location: Northern California
January 24, 2011 6:39 pm
I came across this bug last week in my front yard (January 2011). I moved him off of the walking path. My coworker and I were curious what he might turn into. I looked online but didn’t see any bugs that looked like him.
Signature: -Kimber
Gulf Fritillary Caterpillar
Hi Kimber,
This is the caterpillar of a Gulf Fritillary, a pretty orange butterfly that can be found where passionflower grows because that is the food for the caterpillars.
Daniel, We have baby monarchs
Location: South Pasadena, CA
January 3, 2011 12:44 am
Since I planted the milkweed a few years ago, I’ve had occasional monarch butterfly visitors, and a single caterpillar last summer. Then a few days ago I started finding these. I counted at least eight of them in two different sizes. This is pretty exciting for me. It doesn’t seem like the right season, but I guess they know better.
Signature: Barbara
Monarch Caterpillar
Hi Barbara,
This is really exciting. Congratulations on your good fortune. We would love to know what species of milkweed you are growing in Southern California and where you acquired your plants.
Monarch Caterpillar
I got the milkweed at a Huntington Library plant sale. I’ve lost the tag, and I don’t remember what species it is, but it has nice red and yellow flowers and seeds like crazy. The birds and bugs like it, and it’s quite pretty most of the time if I trim off many of the seed pods. I’d be happy to give you some seedlings which pop up everywhere there’s a little water.
Monarch Caterpillar
Hi Barbara,
I in no means mean to disparage the Huntington which is a marvelous garden and resource for the public, but if they have milkweed, it is probably an exotic species from a faraway land. I was hoping to hear that you got your milkweed from the Theodore Payne Society, a non profit organization in Sun Valley that sells native plants. I may do a book signing there this spring. I am currently working towards trying to preserve our local milkweeds. Clare Marter Kenyon, a local activist who was behind the City of Los Angeles’ Protected Native Tree Ordinance, formerly the Oak Tree Ordinance, informs me that there are three species of native milkweeds in Elyria Canyon Park in Mt Washington, and I plan to try to propagate them. I have never seen a Monarch on the milkweeds in Elyria Canyon Park, but there are always Large Milkweed Bugs on them.
ProtectedTreeOrd
Daniel
Ed. Note: January 5, 2010
Clare Marter Kenyon just sent us this link: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/home_blog/2011/01/milkweed-for-butterflies.html
Update: May 3, 2011
Obtaining Native Milkweed
May 3, 2011 9:44 am
Dear Bugman,
I was reading your tag on Monarchs and milkweed (asclepias). If you havent found sources yet, there are some great native nurseries throughout the state (check www.cnps.org for a thorough list). One near LA is Las Pilitas Nursery, www.laspilitas.com, they have great photos and information. The SF Bay area has Annies Annuals (where I purchased my milkweed). Both of these companies are responsible propogaters and have excellent mailorder service. I have my first crop of Narrow leaf milkweed (asclepias fascicularis)growing in this year. We may only get a few monarchs drifting in but many insects enjoy it. Kudos and thank you for getting out the word that our monarchs need Native milkweed to thrive. I consider it far lovelier than the tropical variety. Before I knew better I had tropical milkweed planted and all it attracted was flies!
Signature: Colleen Clark
Hawaiian Caterpillar
Location: Waialua, Hawaii 96791
January 2, 2011 1:45 am
Hi, I live in Waialua on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. I’ve noticed that some thing has been chewing up the leaves of some of the plants in my yard, and today I caught one red handed (or mouthed, as it were) in a planter on my front porch.I think that it might be the larvae of the Kamehameha butterfly (Vanessa tameame), but I’m not sure. I’d really appreciate any help in pinpointing the species as I’ve recently become rather interested in putting a name to some of the interesting creatures that I see on the island.
Signature: fightingforward
Gulf Fritillary Caterpillar
Dear fightingforward,
Your caterpillar is not that of the Kamehameha Butterfly, but of the Gulf Fritillary. Both are in the Brush Footed Butterfly family Nymphalidae, and many butterflies in this family have caterpillars with short spines, so your error is understandable. The Gulf Fritillary is not native to Hawaii. It is found in North America, Central America and South America, and its range has increased with the cultivation of its food plant, the Passionflowers in the genus Passiflora. It is our understanding that many species of plants from this genus are problematic in Hawaii where they are not native and they easily naturalize because of the climate. The Gulf Fritillary was introduced to Hawaii along with the introduction of the plants. You can compare your image to photos of the caterpillar of the Gulf Fritillary that are posted to BugGuide, and you can see some examples of the adult butterfly on the Insects of Hawaii website.
Comment from Keith Wolfe
Value Added (I hope)
Aloha Fightingforward,
If you want to attract Hawaii’s state insect to your yard (I believe the Kamehameha butterfly, Vanessa tameamea, still occurs on O‘ahu), purchase several māmaki (Pipturus albidus) plants from a local garden shop or nursery. With time and luck, you may really see the beautiful adult and its handsome caterpillar, which graced the Spring 2007 cover of “Ka ‘Elele”: http://www.bishopmuseum.org/membership/kaelele/spring07.pdf.
Best wishes,
Keith
Life (and death) in a milkweed patch
December 28, 2010
Location: Manitoba Birds Hill Provincial Park, Canada
Hi Daniel:
Every July tens of thousands of people descend on Manitoba’s Birds Hill Provincial Park for one of Canada’s, and North America’s, oldest and largest folk festivals (we haven’t missed it for more than 30 years!). In 2006 I discovered the most impressive milkweed patch I have ever seen, wedged between a parking lot and an oak forest, and was thrilled with the abundant and diverse bug life I found there. To my dismay, however, I then watched the patch get systematically destroyed over the next few days as festival goers heedlessly drove and parked all over the patch in an effort to get closer to the shade provided by the adjacent trees. This is generally a ‘green’ crowd so I think it happened more out of ignorance than callousness, but the result was the same. When the same thing happened in 2007 I decided something needed to be done. So I contacted both park and festival staff to plead my case for the protection of this incredible island of diversity, particularly since it is located in the middle of a provincial park.
Milkweed Patch Saved
When we arrived for the 2008 festival I went straight to the patch and was delighted to see the whole area cordoned off, as it has been every year since. Unfortunately, 2008 was one of our coldest wettest summers in recent memory and the milkweeds were barely knee-high and not flowering. The next year was almost as bad, but in 2010 our glorious summer weather returned and the milkweeds were nearly chest high and flowering profusely – and the bug watching was spectacular! The attached photo of what I believe is a Xysticus punctatus Crab Spider finishing off a hapless Monarch caterpillar is one of my favourites from 2010. The other two photos show the milkweed patch after the 2007 festival, and protected in 2010. If you or any of your readers are interested, I have uploaded a collection of photos taken at this location since 2006 (with more to follow next year, I am sure). I am still working on some of the identifications and I am not certain about some of the ones I have inserted, so any comments or suggestions would be welcomed and appreciated. Regards. Karl
Crab Spider eats Monarch Caterpillar
Hi Karl,
We love hearing how your conservation activism made a difference. You did not attach any images, so we took the liberty of lifting a few from your web posting. We might be interested in posting a few more butterflies and dragonflies if you give permission. We especially love the Milkweed Meadow as an important and diverse ecosystem, and we recently created a unique tag for postings related to Milkweed.
Crab Spider eats Monarch Caterpillar
Thanks for bailing me out Daniel; I forget my attachments all the time. These were the files I was going to send but I am also fine with what you put up (although I suppose they don’t quite match the text). Go ahead and borrow anything you like, or let me know if you have anything specific in mind. I have thousands of photos that I have been meaning to organize and perhaps upload, but I just haven’t been able to find the time. Perhaps next year. Have a great new year! K
Destroyed Milkweed Patch in 2007
Thanks for sending additional images Karl. We have posted the 2007 image with the mutilated Milkweed Patch to accompany the original posting. We will let you know if we post any of your other wonderful images.
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