Caterpillar that screams don’t eat me!
Location: Venice, CA 90291
December 27, 2010 5:04 pm
Dear WhatsThatBug,
I saw this bold caterpillar walking west toward the beach in sunny Venice Beach, California. The caterpillar was fairly large, about half a pinkey length and the first think I noticed about it was its beautiful red/blue stripes along its back and its fierce black spikes. Any idea what type of caterpillar this Venice Beach visitor/local might be? Hope you enjoy the photo and happy holidays!
Signature: Venice Todd

Gulf Fritillary Caterpillar

Hi Todd,
This is a Gulf Fritillary Caterpillar, the immature stage of one of the most common butterflies in Southern California.  The Caterpillar of the Gulf Fritillary feeds exclusively on the leaves of the passionflower vine, a common introduced plant, and the introduction of the plant in areas with warmer climates is responsible for the range expansion of the butterfly.  It is our understanding that both the butterfly and food plant are native to Mexico, Central America and South America, but the religious symbolism of the flower has led to its cultivation in warmer areas of the United States, and that cultivation has allowed the pretty orange butterfly to also expand its range.  Since this individual caterpillar was not found on the plant, it is a likely bet that it is about to metamorphose into a chrysalis.  When the caterpillars are mature, an oxymoron since the caterpillar is actually the immature stage of the mature butterfly, it leaves its food plant and searches for an appropriate site to transform into a stationary chrysalis.

Silver Metallic chrysalis
Location: Costa Rica
December 19, 2010 9:24 pm
Hey bugman, I’m trying to get an id on this chrysalis. If I had thought about it, I would have just gotten the name from the card sitting on the display. But six months removed from the time I took the picture, I can’t seem to find any info about it. The picture was taken in the butterfly garden at La Paz Waterfall Gardens in Costa Rica. From their webpage, I know the chrysalis came from one of the species listed here – http://www.waterfallgardens.com/butterflies.php. Any idea which it is? Thanks
Signature: Patrick

Cream Spotted Clearwing Butterfly Chrysalis

Dear Patrick,
It would seem that you are in possession of the same information that we would need to search for the identity of your Chrysalis.  If we wanted to identify the chrysalis of a butterfly that we knew was represented on a list of possibilities, our course of action would be to search for images of the chrysalis of each of the 39 species pictured on the Waterfall Gardens website by utilizing a search engine.  We would definitely eliminate the Swallowtails, Sulphurs and Whites from the first two rows as this is a Brush-Footed Butterfly or Nymphalid Chrysalis.  We noticed that the website you provided has individual pop up windows on the species that they picture, but alas, those do not have images of the entire life cycle.  We would hope that after searching the remaining 31 possibilities, eliminating known quantities like the Monarch, we might be able to provide an answer.  Doing this type of painstaking research often takes a great deal of time.  Working our way through the list, we are content that this is the Chrysalis of the Orange Spotted Tiger Clearwing Butterfly, Mechanitis polymnia, the 37th species from the top, based on a photo on the Visuals Unlimited website and one on the PhotoBank website.  It is also pictured on the Obsession with Butterflies website.  The chrysalis of the closely related Mechanitis polymnia looks quite similar and it is pictured on the Butterfly of San Martín Peru website.

Thanks, I’m satisfied.

Correction Courtesy of Keith Wolfe
December 22, 2010
Daniel, I’m sorry to be a grinch, since you obviously spent a fair amount of time trying to find an ID, but this chrysalis isn’t an Orange-spotted Tiger Clearwing (Mechanitis polymnia)-in-waiting, instead almost certainly being that of a Cream-spotted Clearwing (Tithorea tarricina)*, which is another common Costa Rican ithomiid featured in local butterfly exhibits.  The pupae shown in your second and third links appear to be correctly labeled as Orange-spotteds, however, the trio that pop up at the Obsession site are actually Cream-spotteds — note differences in the two species’ shape, patterning, and color.  (As I mentioned before, wrong identifications of caterpillars and chrysalises abound on the Web, thus the importance of keeping the Bugman “honest”.)  And here’s what Patrick’s Cream-spotted looked like several days earlier: http://culturalnomad.deviantart.com/art/Striped-tube-146765080.
Best wishes,
Keith
* http://www.tolweb.org/Tithorea/27578

Thanks so much for the correction Keith.  It is much appreciated.  It is interesting that the Cream Spotted Clearwing is not even represented on the Waterfall Gardens website.  Upon receiving your correction, we found an image on FlickR of the chrysalides of the Cream Spotted Clearwing to link to for reference.

Update from Keith Wolfe
Daniel, I just checked and Tithorea tarricina (Cream-spotted Clearwing) is listed by La Paz — reading left to right, 25 pix down.
Cheers,
Keith

Thanks Keith,
Our eyes looked right past it.

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Insect that looks like a dead leaf
Location: Alabama
November 18, 2010 4:33 pm
Can you tell me what this bug is? I live in Birmingham Alabama. I took the picture a few days ago on November 12th. The bug looks exactly like a dead leaf. He is dark brown in color and has the shape of the blackjack leaves in our yard. He is even cut and jagged like a leaf. When his wings are opened he is the exact shape and size of a full leaf (size of an adult palm). I about swept him off the porch but noticed he had legs. His wings even looked delicate, almost like they would crumble like a dead leaf, if touched. Attached are the pictures I took. All I had was my camera on my phone and it was early morning around 6:00 am.
Signature: Mrs. Stock

Anglewing Butterfly: Comma perhaps

Dear Mrs. Stock,
This is one of the Anglewing Butterflies in the genus Polygonia.  There are several species that are named after punctuation marks because of the silvery markings on the undersides of the lower pair of wings.  Your specimen may be a Questionmark, Polygonia interrogationis, and you may find other images in our archives as well as searching BugGuide for its comprehensive database.  Anglewings are relatively long lived butterflies, and adults frequently hibernate over the winter even in climates with snow and freezing temperatures by seeking shelter in places like hollow trees.  The more brightly colored dorsal surface of the wings causes the Anglewing butterfly to be visible while it is in flight, but when in alights among the leaves on the forest floor it appears to disappear, thwarting any potential predators with its resemblance to a fallen leaf.

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Christmas Tree Caterpillar
Location: Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Malasia (Borneo)
October 29, 2010 5:59 am
I found this caterpillar in Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Malasia. Do you know the name??
Signature: With regards, Steven Gehner

Archduke Caterpillar

Dear Steven,
We are posting your awesome image without doing any research as time does not permit it at the moment.  We believe this is a Stinging Caterpillar in the Slug Moth family Limacodidae, but there are also some unusual looking stinging caterpillars in the family Saturniidae and we would not rule out that possibility.

Correction Courtesy of Karl
Hi Daniel and Steven:
It certainly looks like a Limacodid moth caterpillar but it is actually a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It reminds me of the Baron (Euthalia sp.) from India posted previously on WTB. This one, however, is in the genus Lexias, probably L. pardalis. It also has a royal common name, the Archduke. There are at least nine other species of Lexias on Borneo, most of which I couldn’t find caterpillar pictures for, but I think this one looks close enough to L. pardalis to call it. Apparently this caterpillar’s menacing appearance is all a bluff – it is perfectly harmless. Regards.  Karl

Thanks Karl,
It really does look identical to the Archduke Caterpillar, Lexias pardalis dirteana, on the link you provided.

Keith Wolfe offers another possibility
Hi Steven and Daniel,
In the interest of scientific accuracy (regrettably, the Internet is full of potentially misleading, and downright wrong, caterpillar identifications that subsequent visitors take as valid and unwittingly perpetuate), please allow me to caution that it’s equally possible for this distinctive young butterfly to be Lexias dirtea, the so-called Black-tipped Archduke.  The two species have virtually identical adults and immatures, which I know firsthand having reared L. dirtea (coincidentally from Borneo) and a number of related taxa.
Best wishes,
Keith Wolfe

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