Lesson Learned in Florida
Last spring, I tried in vain to keep eight, young, butterfly plants alive in my modest flower garden. “How wonderful it would be to attract beautiful butterflies”, I thought. To my dismay, fat, yellow, aphids appeared by the dozens on each little plant. They were herded by fire ants from a nearby nest. For weeks, I squished aphids, always marveling at the protectiveness of the ants and sheer numbers of aphids they managed. While walking in the cattle pasture one day, I saw an entire plant covered with aphids. I was horrified that the source of these bugs was a weed that had appeared in our pastures in record abundance, presumably due to a long drought experienced here in northern Florida. Since we raise natural beef cattle, I picked many of these weeds by hand out of our pastures, but to my dismay, as I picked them, their seed pods were already releasing fluffy seeds for next year. This spring, the population of these plants was even higher than last year! So, I began picking these plants early this year, well before they could complete their seed pods. I didn’t get far before I noticed a caterpillar on one of the plants. It was a monarch! (See pictures below). I looked at my hands and noticed the milky substance from the few plants I had already picked. How ironic that I waged a (thankfully) unsuccessful war against what turned out to be a milkweed native to Florida because I wanted to save a few measly butterfly plants! How completely human of me. Little did I know that I had several hundred or more plants in the pastures that were the perfect diet for the very creature I was seeking to attract. I have learned my lesson and sworn off meddling with milkweeds or anything else unless I know for certain that it is a threat to native wildlife.
Alicia

Hi Alicia,
Thank you for writing one of the best letters we have received in a long time. We are excited to post your photo of a Monarch Caterpillar.

Glad you enjoyed it! I’m researching when these caterpillars will complete their pupa stage and emerge as butterflies. We plan to rotate the cattle in our other pastures until then to keep the monarchs safe. We already made changes in our livestock management to accommodate two other threatened species: gopher tortoises and Sherman fox squirrels. Gratefully,
Alicia

Can you identify this chrysalis?
I encountered four chrysalis hanging from the doorframe of a storage shed (Altadena, California, USA–Los Angeles area). Can you identify the species? 3 jpegs attached. Thanks,
Mike Hickman

Hi Mike,
These are Mourning Cloak butterfly chrysalids. There is a great photo on BugGuide of a group of chrysalids, but they were raised in captivity. Locally, the caterpillars feed mainly on Chinese Elm and Willow.

Da bug
I am a ranger at Okefenokee NWR, where we have many species of butterflies. I found this caterpillar on March 28, 2008, on what may be it’s host plant. Can you identify the caterpillar, and, ideally, the plant? Thanks for a great website!
Sallie Gentry
Refuge Ranger
Okefenokee NWR
Folkston, GA

Da bug
Sallie,
Here’s your caterpillar. Have you figured out the plant yet? See you Monday.
JR

Hi Sally,
It looks like JR gave you a task for the weekend. The caterpillar is an American Lady Caterpillar, Vanessa virginiensis. We found a website that states: “The larvae, unlike those of the Painted Lady, feed on a comparatively limited range of foodplants. The preferred food sources are plants of the everlasting tribe of the Compositae, such as sweet everlasting ( Graphalium obtusifolium ), pearly everlasting ( Anaphalis margaritacea ), and plantain-leaved pussytoes ( Antennaria plantaginifolia ); they also feed occasionally on burdock ( Arctium ), wormwood ( Artemisia ), and ironweed ( Vernonia ) (Opler and Krizek 1984; Scott 1986).” Additional web searching led us to the Connecticut Botanical Society website. We believe your plant is the Plantain-Leaved Pussytoes, Antennaria plantaginifolia, also known as Woman’s Tobacco.

Hi Daniel,
It’s me again…I came across this nasty looking caterpillar (see attached file) among the bushes & I think they belong to the species called “Lebadea Martha Parkeri” (The Knight). Just wondering if you can confirm this. Thanks once again for your valuable help. Cheers,
Eddie

Hi again Eddie,
Once you had provided us with all the information, our google search was easy, but one of the first sites we found had a suspiciously familiar looking image. Sure enough, it was your exact photo. Reading the content revealed it as your web site, Living the Simple Life. We continued to search for proof that your identification was correct, and found the The Caterpillar Gallery of the Butterfly Interest Group of Singapore which contains an image of the caterpillar of The Knight, Lebadea martha parkeri, and it looks like a match to your caterpillar, so we agree with your identification.