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Morning Cloak Caterpillar aggregation

Gathering of Mourning Cloak ”Cats”
Location: Marsh area, N. Ohio
June 27, 2011 10:16 am
Dear Bugman: I spotted this cluster of Mourning Cloak caterpillars, while on a nature trail in a northern Ohio marsh.
I have never seen so many of these cats gathered all together before. At first I thought they we some kind of tent caterpillar. They were feeding on willow leaves.
I noticed an interesting behavior. While some ”cats” were eating, others kept their heads up and made jerking, bobbing motions with them, all in unison. It was like synchronized head bobbing. Is this some kind of defense or early warning system behavior?
Signature: Chrstine O.

morning cloak cats aggregation christine 300x201 Morning Cloak Caterpillar aggregation

Morning Cloak Caterpillars

Hi Christine,
We love your photograph.  Caterpillars that form aggregations by remaining in close proximity to one another while feeding and resting generally derive benefits from the safety in numbers notion.  While we cannot comment specifically on the head bobbing you witnessed, your hypothesis is consistent with a defense explanation.  Morning Cloak Caterpillars will remain in a communal state until they are ready to pupate, though often the chrysalides are also found in “colonies”, though the metamorphosis generally occurs away from the food plant.  It has been our observation that this year we have seen more Mourning Cloak Butterflies in Los Angeles than in any year in recent memory.  It seems from the mail that we have received that there may be a spike in the population of Mourning Cloak butterflies and caterpillars this year.  Often population advances and declines are cyclical.  Perhaps the unseasonal rains in both the Pacific Southwest and in the Mid West this year are responsible for the population surge.

What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

A bucket of Morning Cloak Caterpillars

A bucket of caterpillars
Location: San Diego, CA
June 26, 2011 6:23 pm
My son brought these in today. What are they?
Signature: Misty

morning cloak caterpillars 300x206 A bucket of Morning Cloak Caterpillars

Morning Cloak Caterpillars

Hi Misty,
You have a bucket of Morning Cloak Caterpillars.  They will metamorphose into a beautiful purplish black butterfly with cream colored wing edges and blue spots.  It appears that there is one Chinese elm tree leaf in the bucket, and they feed on the leaves of elm as well as willow.  If you try to keep them in captivity, give them plenty of room, like a 10 gallon aquarium with a screen lid.  Feed them fresh leaves each day.  You can cut small branches from the tree.  It would probably be better to return most of them to the tree upon which they were feeding and only keep a few for raising.

Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

Munching the parsley
Location:  Vermont
June 25, 2011
Hi again,
Busy week with critters! I just found these guys on a parsley plant. Any clue what they are?
KT

black swallowtail cat kt 300x206 Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

Hi again KT,
This striking caterpillar is a Black Swallowtail and it also goes by the common name Parsley Worm.  BugGuide notes that the caterpillars are sometimes called Carrot Worms, Dill Worms, Celery Worms and Fennel Worms because they will feed on the leaves of many plants in the carrot family.  They will also feed on Queen Anne’s Lace.  We had a bit of trouble formatting this posting because you bypassed our normal submission form.  While we do not discriminate against emails that we receive that are not on our standard form, occasionally crucial information is omitted.  In the case of this posting, we had to research your previous submissions to provide the proper location for this sighting.  Please use our standard submission form by clicking Ask WTB when you are submitting photos in the future to ensure that our posting process will be more streamlined and efficient.

What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Monarch Eggs Hatching

Monarch caterpillar egg (Danaus plexippus)
Location: Naperville, IL
June 21, 2011 8:25 pm
Dear Bugman~
I thought you might like to have these photos I took today of the first of our 2011 Monarch caterpillars. We live in the midst of a prairie preserve with a lot of common milkweed, and we keep a few plants in our front yard for the purpose of raising Monarchs each summer. The one on the right has just hatched and has turned around to begin eating its shell. My photos of it actually hatching were too blurry, as I was in a hurry. The one on the left hatched after I left it, but I will plenty of opportunities for better shots. Best regards.
Signature: Dori Eldridge

monarch egg hatchling dori 300x225 Monarch Eggs Hatching

Hatchling Monarch Caterpillar

Hi Dori,
We are positively thrilled to receive your excellent images of a newly hatched Monarch Caterpillar and a sibling egg about to hatch.  This very nicely rounds out our Monarch Butterfly metamorphosis as we now have all stages of development, though several Caterpillar instars may be missing.  We do have a question about the anatomy of the milkweed.  It appears that buds are just sitting on a leaf, and that they are not properly connected to the plant.  Can you please explain if this was a result of gathering eggs from a different plant.

monarch egg hatchling dori 2 300x225 Monarch Eggs Hatching

Hatchling Monarch Caterpillar

 

Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

Black and yellow caterpillar
Location: Ocean County NJ ( south NJ )
June 20, 2011 5:45 pm
Hi Bugman,My daughter found this caterpillar in the green houses where she work at moore’s farm market in Beachwood NJ. Do you know what that is, maybe a swallowtail butterfly? Thanks for your time & knowledge icon smile Black Swallowtail Caterpillar
Signature: Jacqui Moich & family

black swallowtail cat jacqui 300x192 Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

Hi Jacqui,
You are correct.  This is a Black Swallowtail Caterpillar.  You can feed it parsley or even the tops of carrots from the grocery store.

Mourning Cloak Caterpillar

Caterpillar
Location: San Fernando Valley, CA
May 29, 2011 7:28 pm
My niece & I found this guy crawling around our porch. We can’t figure out what it is and would like to know what it eats as well.
Signature: KA

mourning cloak cat la ka 300x236 Mourning Cloak Caterpillar

Mourning Cloak Caterpillar

Dear KA,
We have seen numerous adult Mourning Cloak butterflies this spring.  They are medium sized dark butterflies with irregular pale yellow wing edges.  It makes sense that with numerous adults, there will be a population explosion of Mourning Cloak Caterpillars like yours.  They feed on Chinese Elm, though originally they fed on the native willow that grows along the water in riparian habitats.

Thank you so much for the immediate response. Hopefully we can see it turn into a butterfly soon icon smile Mourning Cloak Caterpillar

mourning cloak cat la ka 21 300x215 Mourning Cloak Caterpillar

Mourning Cloak Caterpillar

Orange Dog reveals Osmetrium

caterpiller
Location: augusta, Ga
May 5, 2011 7:04 am
came out the house this morning and at first thought it a bird had poo on my orange tree till i moved the leaf and it stuch its 1 in long tongues at me not sure if they were forked did see where they came together.
Signature: kristina

orange dog kristina blurry 300x225 Orange Dog reveals Osmetrium

blurry photo of an Orange Dog

we wish your photos were in focus.  The Orange Dog is the caterpillar of the beautiful Giant Swallowtail butterfly.

i took more this morning of it this morning.

Ed. Note: Reshoot
As instructors of photography, it is imperative that we instruct our students how to properly focus their images.  Unless soft focus is used creatively and consciously, students who create blurry images cannot receive an excellent grade on their assignments, and we generally recommend a reshoot.  We were very impressed that Kristina made the effort to reshoot her images of an Orange Dog, prompting us to post both the original and the subsequent images.  When it comes to educating photographers, we reward attempts to make better images even if the reshoot is not entirely successful by adding a few points, but nothing is more rewarding than seeing a major improvement when a student reshoots an assignment.  With that in mind, we are now posting Kristina’s efforts as well as elaborating on our original very short response to her.

orange dog kristina 300x250 Orange Dog reveals Osmetrium

Orange Dog

Hello again Kristina,
These new images are a vast improvement over your original attempts, and we applaud the initiative you took.  Your new and critically sharp images show a “content” Orange Dog as well as the very effective defense mechanism utilized when that Orange Dog is threatened.  The red forked organ is known as an Osmetrium and when the disturbed, the Orange Dog, like its many closely related Swallowtail Caterpillar relatives, obtrudes the Osmetrium which in turn emits a foul odor.  The Osmetrium is a defense organ and the foul odor that is released is believed to ward off birds and other predators that would otherwise find the caterpillar to be a tasty morsel.  The red or orange color of the Osmetrium is most likely also a visual deterrent.

orange dog kristina osmetrium 300x209 Orange Dog reveals Osmetrium

Orange Dog Obtrudes Osmetrium

Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

Another caterpillar!
Location: Jacksonville Fl
May 2, 2011 2:47 pm
Hello Bugman!
This one was cleverly concealed in some weeds. I was wondering if you could identify it for me. I’m rather curious as to what it will become.
As always, thank you for your continues efforts!
Signature: Danno

black swallowtail cat danno 300x206 Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

Dear Danno,
In an effort to respond to more emails and make more postings of all the wonderful images we are receiving, our answers are getting shorter.  This is a Black Swallowtail Caterpillar.


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