Please help!
Location: Southeastern Ohio
August 14, 2010 4:46 pm
My husband found this critter on our cucumber plant. We live in Amanda Ohio (southeaster Ohio). Please help identify this bug.
Amy
Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar
Hi Amy,
This is a most unusual sighting, not because of what your found, but because of where you found it. Whenever a caterpillar if found, identification is easier if the plant upon which the caterpillar is found is identified because often the food plant is very limited. This is a Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar, Papilio troilus. According to BugGuide, the Caterpillar of the Spicebush Swallowtail feeds on: “Spicebush (Lindera benzoin), Sassafras trees (Sassafras albidum), Pondspice (Litsea aestivalis) Red, Swamp and Silk Bays (Persea spp.); perhaps prickly ash (Zanthoxylum americanum), Tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), Sweetbay (Magnolia virginiana), and Camphor (Cinnamomum camphora).“ Are any of these plants growing near your cucumber plant? We suspect this caterpillar is ready to metamorphose into a chrysalis. At that time, many caterpillars leave the host plant to search for a suitable location in which to transform to the sedentary phase of their life while preparing to become a winged butterfly or moth. We suspect today you may find a very different looking critter.
Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar
¶ Posted 15 August 2010 § ‡ ° this was supposed to be a black swallowtail butterfly
Location: southwest ohio
August 11, 2010 4:19 pm
i found a black swallowtail caterpillar,
Black Swallowtail Caterpillar: Beginning Metamorphosis
(found that on your site) in my front yard. a few days later it put itself in a cacoon or chrysalis. yesterday i noticed something flying in the container but it was way to small to be my butterfly. WHAT IS THIS??????????
BIBEF
Black Swallowtail Chrysalis
Dear BIBEF,
By all outward appearances, your Black Swallowtail had begun its metamorphosis into a chrysalis and things should have culminated in the emergence of a butterfly, but while it was still a caterpillar, your individual was parasitized by a type of wasp known as an Ichneumon. We quickly identified the adult Ichneumon that you photographed as Trogus pennator, which BugGuide indicates “is a parasitoid of swallowtail butterflies (Papilionidae), ovipositing in the caterpillars.“ The female Ichneumon lays a solitary egg inside the caterpillar using her stingerlike ovipositor. BugGuide has a nice series of images documenting this process. The Ichneumon Larva develops inside the the caterpillar, feeding upon its internal organs and allowing it to pupate into a chrysalis. At some point hidden from view, the Ichneumon Larva undergoes its own metamorphosis into a pupa, eventually emerging as an adult wasp and chewing its way out of the chrysalis through an irregular hole. The adult butterfly will not emerge once it has been parasitized. BugGuide also has a photo that illustrates that action. Back in the seventeenth century in Germany, artist and naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian became one of the first people to notice and document insect metamorphosis at a time when the accepted theory was spontaneous generation. Maria Sibylla Merian observed that caterpillars formed pupae and emerged as moths and butterflies as part of a natural process of metamorphosis, but she was puzzled that some caterpillars did not metamorphose in a typical manner, emerging instead as flies or wasps. She documented this puzzle in her intricate drawings which were published in a two volume book known as Caterpillars, Their Wondrous Transformation and Peculiar Nourishment from Flowers or simply The Caterpillar Book. You should be able to see the hole in the chrysalis. As a point of clarification, butterflies do not form a cocoon as their pupae are bare. A cocoon is usually spun of silk to cover a naked pupa. Most moths form a cocoon to protect the pupa.
Ichneumon: Trogus pennator
2
Anise Swallowtail
Location: Cotati, CA
July 28, 2010 7:04 pm
I raised Anise Swallowtail butterflies locally for 15 years and have always had an amazing time watching them transform. I caught one of them in the middle of cocooning. Thought it would be nice to share! He later hatched into a beautiful butterfly!
Lauren
Anise Swallowtail Chrysalis with larval exuvia still attached
Hi Lauren,
Your photographs are stunning. We especially like that your Anise Swallowtail Chrysalis photo has captured the molting process and the exoskeleton of the caterpillar is still visible.
Anise Swallowtail
Mystery caterpillar
July 6, 2010
Hello!
This caterpillar has been nibbling my parsley. That’s actually a good thing because I planted it in hopes of attracting Black Swallowtail Larvae. The question is, is that what I have here? I have not found a photo that’s exactly like this guy. The blue doesn’t seem correct for a Black Swallowtail. What do you think?
Flatpickr
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Black Swallowtail Caterpillar
Dear Flatpickr,
Congratulations. Your efforts to plant parsley to attract Black Swallowtail Caterpillars has been successful. Your caterpillar is in fact a Black Swallowtail.
3
¶ Posted 06 July 2010 § ‡ ° Caterpillar with “eyes.”
June 27, 2010
From what I’ve found on your site, I think this caterpillar may be related to the Tersa Sphinx Moth. However, the one that I found didn’t have a horn. Is it a different species in the same family? It was found crawling on a wall in Shreveport, Louisiana on May 28th, 2010.
Michael M.
Shreveport, LA
Tiger Swallowtail Caterpillar
Hi Michael,
There are many caterpillars that have protective coloration that includes eyespots. This is not a Sphinx Caterpillar, but rather a Swallowtail Butterfly Caterpillar, most likely the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail which is pictured on BugGuide.
3
¶ Posted 27 June 2010 § ‡ ° Nymphalid?
June 7, 2010
Found this little guy today feeding on a plant that seems like a wilder variety of cilantro. Reminded me of a monarch larva. Is it a nymphalid?
L.Rakestraw, Tucson, AZ
Tucson (near Canada del Oro Wash)
Anise Swallowtail Caterpillar
Dear L.
We are quite jealous. Despite that we have a field of carrots in bloom in our front yard and that we see Anise Swallowtails in our garden, we have yet to discover Anise Swallowtail Caterpillars feeding on our carrot plants. We have found Anise Swallowtail Caterpillars feeding on wild fennel in the open space nearby.
Thank you! This one would be a great candidate to raise for the kids. I can dig up some of that plant and pot it and put it in a screen cage.
Side note: I also sent the picture asking if it was a Pyrgotid fly, but I am almost certain now that it is a picture-wing fly, Otitidae or Ulidiidae, due to the shape of the abdomen and the fact that those *do* occur here. Also, there are no May beetles here and we have plenty of compost in our yard, which Otitids consume!
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
The Anise Swallowtail is great for kids because the butterfly is so pretty. When a drab brown moth emerges, the impact is not as great. We will try to post your picture winged fly if we have a chance.
2
¶ Posted 07 June 2010 § ‡ ° Alien Worm on my Orange Tree
June 3, 2010
Strangest worm looking creature with a sort of shell and retracting antenna was on my orange tree this morning. I put it in a jar with the leaf, and it ate some of the leaf.
any way you like
Lutz, FL zip code 33549
Orange Dog
Dear any way,
This is the caterpillar of a Giant Swallowtail, a lovely brown and yellow butterfly with tails on the hind wings. Commonly called an Orange Dog, this caterpillar avoids being eaten by birds because it resembles bird droppings. The retracting antennae you mentioned are a scent organ knows as the osmetrium. When disturbed, many Swallowtail Caterpillars reveal this organ which is accompanied by a scent thought to deter predators. The sacrifice of losing a few leaves on your tree will reward you with an adult butterfly in the coming weeks.
5
¶ Posted 04 June 2010 § ‡ ° Solomons swallowtail
December 17, 2009
This is another video frame. Unfortunately the butterfly never stopped moving. This frame is the closest to “sharp” as I could grab from the video. I’m guessing it is a swallowtail sp.
Bruce, Atlanta
Solomon Islands, Tenaru River, Guadalcanal
Citrus Swallowtail
Hi Bruce,
This appears to be a male Citrus Swallowtail, Papilio aegeus. The Lepidoptera Butterflyhouse website has nice images of the entire metamorphosis. This species exhibits sexual dimorphism, where the two sexes look radically different from one another. Additionally, there are many races and subspecies throughout Australia, Indonesia, the Solomons and New Guinea.
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