caterpillars
Location:  central Florida
October 15, 2010 8:45 pm
I found these caterpillars eating the leaves on a small, very thorny bush, about 2’ tall on the side of a sandy road in Melbourne, FL. The caterpillars are very flat and not hairy, that I can see.
Signature:  Always curious

Giant Swallowtail Caterpillar

Dear Always Curious,
This is the caterpillar of a Giant Swallowtail which is commonly called an Orange Dog.  The caterpillar has several survival mechanisms, and one is that it appears to resemble bird droppings, thereby avoiding predators.

Thanks for the  giant swallowtail ID.   Your website is awesome!  Always curious

Swallow Tail?
Location:  Yenibogazici, Northern Cyprus
October 5, 2010 2:52 am
I can tell from your wonderful site that this is a swallow tail, but which one. It’s pattern doesn’t seem to match with any pics.
Signature:  Senny

Swallowtail Caterpillar: Papilio machaon

Hi Senny,
We just learned on the Butterflies of Cyprus website that Papilio machaon is the only Swallowtail on Cyprus and that it is “Common throughout most months of the year and widely distributed throughout the island.“  The EuroButterflies website has images of the caterpillar that look exactly like your photo, and they indicate the caterpillars feed on “many species of the Umbelliferae (Carrots) and Rutaceae (Rues).“   You may also read more on the UK Butterflies website.  It is listed on the Butterflies and Moths of North America website where it is called the Old World Swallowtail, but it is unclear if it is considered an introduced species, however this information on the larval foods is interesting:  “Sagebrushes (Artemisia species), including Arctic wormwood and wild tarragon, rarely plants in the parsley family.“  Finally, the Butterflies of Europe website has interesting information, including this:
“Throughout most of it’s range the Swallowtail shows itself to be highly adaptable, utilising a wide variety of habitats including sub-arctic tundra in Canada, prairies, woodlands and arid canyons in the south of the USA; hay meadows, roadside verges, river banks and sub-alpine pastures in Europe; high montane habitats in the Atlas mountains of north Africa, and semi-cultivated habitats in the Mediterranean area.
It’s adaptability extends also to it’s choice of foodplants – in North America the caterpillars usually feed on Compositae ( Artimesia, Petasites ), while in Europe Rutaceae ( Ruta, Haplophyllum ) and Umbelliferae ( Foeniculum, Peucidanum etc  ) are used instead. In Britain however the butterfly is restricted to a single foodplant – milk parsley, and breeds only at a very small number of wet fenland habitats in north-east Norfolk. Individual specimens have been tagged and found to fly over quite a large area, often reaching adjacent fens, but the butterflies do not stray beyond the general area of the broads.
Several centuries ago the species almost certainly occurred as a resident species over a much wider area of southern and eastern England, but later contracted it’s range to the Great Fen – a vast area of wetlands covering Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk. Following the drainage of this area, and it’s conversion to agriculture, the butterfly was forced to contract it’s range even further – to the Norfolk Broads. In such isolation the genetic diversity would have diminished, causing the so-called “sub-species” machaon brittanicus to become far less adaptable, and to acquire minor differences in appearance from the ancestral stock. “

Mysterious under-log chrysalis and clearwing sphinx
Location:  Southern Illinois
September 27, 2010 8:05 pm
Was out flipping over logs with the boyos today, and found this chrysalis on the underside of a log, surrounded by fungus, but apparently none the worse for the wear. Still wiggled when we teased it.
I’ve googled my first few guesses as to what forest butterfly it may belong to. Doesn’t seem to be a Mourning Cloak or a Comma. No particularly distinctive protrusions, and no metallic reflector bits. Found in open forest, under a log.
Does it look familiar to you?
Also attaching a clearwing sphinx shot that turned out well from the other week.
Signature:  Bert

Tiger Swallowtail Chrysalis

Hi Bert,
We do not recognize this pupa, and we did a quick check on BugGuide, but did not have any luck.  We suspect this may be a moth pupa and not a butterfly pupa.  Perhaps one of our readers will be able to supply a response and identification.

Karl Identifies the Mystery Pupa
Hi Daniel and Bert:
I can’t be entirely certain but this looks very much like the overwintering pupa of an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). Swallowtail chrysalids are typically attached to a twig, branch or tree trunk by a silk girdle, but some species do pupate on the ground. Eastern Swallowtail caterpillars always chose a pupation site near the ground, and they quite often pupate on or among the leaf litter on the forest floor where the chrysalis is protected by its cryptic texture and coloration. In addition to the grey-brown coloration, characteristics include greenish patches of varying extent and intensity, two horns on the head and one horn at the top of the thorax. It looks to me as if all of these features are evident on this individual. How it got under the log remains a bit of a mystery, but I suppose the caterpillar could have crawled under it, or perhaps the chrysalis somehow rolled under. Anyway, that is my best guess. Regards.  Karl

Thank you Karl,
It appears you have identified yet another mystery for us.

Black Witch Metamorphosis
Location:  San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
September 26, 2010 11:28 am
Daniel,
Here are a couple images of a Black Witch moth from cocoon to maturity. Unfortunately, I can’t find an image of the caterpillar that I took to round out the whole cycle. As usual, when we were at our home in Mexico in August there were several caterpillars crawling around in anticipation of cocooning. They were fat, bird dropping mimics and about 2 inches long. You can’t tell too well from my photo, but the cats girdled themselves with a silk ”hanger” much like swallowtails, so that’s what I thought they were. Couldn’t find them online, so I asked our renters to take a picture for me after we left (August 14) so I might be able to identify the outcome. Wow, was I surprised when they sent me this photo today! Clearly a Black Witch male. The time from cocoon to emergence was about 5 – 6 weeks — early August to Sept 15.
I thought you might enjoy adding this to your files on the Black Witch. My apologies for the less than stellar images, but at least it gives you an idea.
Signature:  Stefanie

Not Black Witch Pupa

Hi Stephanie,
We are positively thrilled to post your partial documentation of a Black Witch metamorphosis.  The information on the pupa is very interesting, though it is difficult in the photo to make out the silken girdle you mention.  Should you happen upon the photo of the caterpillar, please send it at a later date.

Black Witch

UPDATE: Black Witch Metamorphosis Update
Location:  San Miguel de Allende`
September 26, 2010 12:37 pm
Daniel,
I sent an earlier email on this but am now questioning the veracity of the Black Witch coming from the cocoon I photographed in early August. I did some research and have found that Black Witches pupate rather than form a cocoon. So I doubt that the Black Witch in the photo my renter sent me came from the cocoon I photographed. I fear the cocoon remains a mystery.
Signature:  Stefanie

Thanks for the additional information Stephanie.  The photo does show a bare pupa, not a cocoon, so you may still be correct.  We will try to locate a photo of a Black Witch Pupa to confirm.

Daniel,
When I searched for images of the Black Witch lifecycle to confirm what I’d found and see other images, the pupa looked like something you find under ground. But that was only one site. On another, it talked about a cocoon. So I’ll be interested in what you or other readers have to say. Certainlly we have the right type of vegetation for Black Witch caterpillars which feed on mesquite, for one thing.
Stefanie

Hi Stephanie,
In attempting to research this posting more thoroughly, we found a Texas Entomology website with a page on the Life Cycle Photographs and rearing Note on the Black Witch, and it contains an image of a bare pupa.  Sadly, the quality of the image you sent of the alleged Black Witch Pupa is of low quality, but it looks more to us like a larva than a pupa, but a larva that is getting ready to pupate, meaning that the caterpillar skin has still not been shed.  The markings do somewhat resemble the markings of the Black Witch Caterpillars on the web page with the pupa image.  Sadly, there is no information on where the moth pupates.  The Texas Entomology website also has a web page entitled The Black Witch:  Its Natural and Cultural History, but again, no description of the pupa, nor have we had any luck locating an image of a Black Witch Pupa.  This posting may remain a mystery, however we are going to continue to report your observations that the caterpillar of the Black Witch may construct a silken girdle for the pupa.

Final Conclusion:  Not Black Witch Pupa
September 27, 2010
Hi Daniel,

I believe  I’ve solved the mystery and can now say that it’s NOT a Black Witch. After I began to have doubts I remembered that the pic I sent you of the “cocoon” was, as you say, still in the transformation into a pupa. I cannot find any pictures that I thought I took of the final stage but they looked like a stick and you could definitely see the silk girdle. I’ve done some more searching based on what I remember the cat and pupa looking like and found the site Interactive Listing of Mexican Butterflies (Mariposas Mexicanas) website. Based on the appearance of the cat being a bird dropping mimic and its eventual metamorphosis into a pupa that looked twiglike and was held with a girdle, I believed it must be a swallowtail of some sort and so I began looking through all the species for a picture of the cat and chrysalis. I now believe it is a Pink-spotted Swallowtail, papilio rogeri pharnaces. Here is the exact link: http://www.mariposasmexicanas.com/papilio_heraclides_rogeri_pharnaces.htm. If you scroll to the bottom you will see both the caterpillar and the pupa, both exactly as I remember, the cat resemblling bird droppings but also slightly snakelike and the pupa looking like a twig.  Thanks for your extra research on this. My further reading tells me that the larva feed on citrus and we have a young lime tree in our yard. I only wish I could see the butterfly!

Thanks for keeping us informed Stephanie.

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