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Red Spotted Purple Caterpillars

Young caterpillars and hibernaculum – Redspotted Purple
Dear Bugman,
Your site is really fantastic and I would like to make a contribution to your picture collection. So, what I have for you is a hibernaculum, a small caterpillar and a medium sized caterpillar of the Redspotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax). I found them on a bush of Wild Cerry on the 2:nd of May (yesterday)in Madison/Wisconsin close to Lake Mendota, all on the same twig. They are standing on my kitchen table now and I am planning to provide you with more pictures of their development. Last year I was breeding about 10 caterpillars from the same region, and all of them were Redspotted Purples, no White Admirals or mixed forms were between them. Thank you so much for providing such a wonderful site!
Best regards,
Thomas Werner, PhD
Laboratory of Molecular Biology
University of Wisconsin-Madison

redspotted cat tiny Red Spotted Purple Caterpillarsredspotted cat Red Spotted Purple Caterpillars

Hi Thomas,
We are posting your two caterpillar images, but we are having trouble making out the Hibernaculum in the third photo, unless you are speaking about the plant bud.

(05/04/2006)
Hi Bugman,
I am very happy to see my pictures on your side. So, the hibernaculum is the dried little leaf. The caterpillars cut off the distal part of the leaf in autumn, leaving the central part intact and cover it with silk, so that it forms a tube. The hibernaculum is fastened to the twig with silk and doesn’t fall off during winter. I hope I could help you finding it on the picture. My medium sized caterpillar has just molted, so here comes an addition to the collection.
Best regards,
Thomas

hiburnaculum Red Spotted Purple Caterpillarsredspotted cat molt Red Spotted Purple Caterpillars

Hi again Thomas,
Thanks for the clarification and the addition. You are such a proud father.

Posted 03 May 2006 § brush footed butterfly caterpillars ‡ Comments (0) °
What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Morpho Caterpillar

Blue Morpho Caterpillar
Hi folks at Whatsthatbug!
I thought you might like this picture of a Blue Morpho caterpillar that I took at Butterfly World in South Florida. In the background, which is hard to see, is a crysalis of a Blue Morpho. Cheers!
Lori

morpho cat Morpho Caterpillar

Hi again Lori,
Thanks for sending in this photo of an exotic Morpho Caterpillar.

Posted 03 May 2006 § brush footed butterfly caterpillars ‡ Comments (0) °

Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillar

caterpiller
Hi. I am wondering if you can identify this caterpillar? for me. Its about an inch and a half long. It was found on a rose bush in the front yard. I live in Kerrville, Texas.
Thanks in advance
Daniel Burney

pipevine cat daniel Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillar

Hi Daniel,
This is a Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillar, Battus philenor. Rose is not a host plant, so we can only guess a pipevine is growing nearby.

Posted 01 May 2006 § swallowtail caterpillars ‡ Comments (0) °
What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Red-Spotted Purple Catepillar

Caterpillar
I found your website while searching for a caterpillar ID, and just spent 2 hours enjoying all your wonderful photos and comments! I found this bird-dropping mimic on a weed in my garden which *might* be a wild cherry since I have a large one in my yard. I am not sure though because the plant is only 10 inches tall! Sadly the next day the caterpillar was gone. I live in Northern Virginia. I think it is a red-spotted purple, what do you think? Thanks for looking at my critter and for having such an awesome site!
Rebecca

redspottedpurple cat 2 Red Spotted Purple Catepillarredspottedpurple cat Red Spotted Purple Catepillar

Hi Rebecca,
The Red-Spotted Purple, Limenitis arthemis astyanax, and the White Admiral, Limenitis arthemis arthemis, are subspecies with different ranges that overlap. According to BugGuide: “White Admiral ( Limentis arthemis form arthemis ) – the northern form, basically black and white in the east, In the west specimens tend to have red spots on the hind wing and are called Western White Admirals ( Limentis arthemis form rubrofasciata ). In the SE USA and as far north as extreme southern Ontario this species is black and purple (no white band)and is called Red-Spotted Purple ( Limentis arthemis form astyanax ). As there 3 forms are regarded as being the same species, intergrades between them are quite common.” Since you have graciously provided us with a location, we can presume you do have the southern Red-Spotted Purple. Thank you for sending in a new caterpillar for our site.

Posted 29 April 2006 § brush footed butterfly caterpillars ‡ Comments (0) °

Common Crow Caterpillar from Australia

Caterpillar ID
I was hoping you could help me identify these two caterpillars. The brown and green coloured ones (I assume two colour variations of the same species) are on a Taro plant. The tiny caterpillar with the egg is a freshly hatched caterpillar of the same species. The second caterpillar is on a small fig tree. I was thinking perhaps it could be related to a Monarch as they were the most similar pictures i could find. I am located in the Brisbane area, Queensland. By the way, love your site. Do you know of any good Australian caterpillar/butterfly Id sites? I have done lot’s of searching but haven’t come across anything anywhere near as good as this site. Thanks for your help!
Rebecca

common crow cat australia Common Crow Caterpillar from Australia

Hi Rebecca,
The brown and green Sphinx Moth caterpillars will be very difficult for us to get a species identification, and we cannot spend the hours of online searching it will take. You will have to be satisfied with just the family Sphingidae. The gloriously beautiful Danainae caterpillar is related to the Monarch. It is the Common Australian Crow, Euploea core corinna. Your caterpillar photo is stunning. Regarding a good site for Australian Butterflies, try http://www.geocities.com/brisbane_butters/index.html though we here at What’s That Bug? are seriously thinking of applying for grant money to set up What’s That Australian Bug? or What’s That Bug Down Under? since we get so many fabulous letters from Australia with wonderful photos. Sadly, right now it is just a thought.

Posted 29 April 2006 § brush footed butterfly caterpillars ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

? Caterpillar identified as Yellow Coster

What’s this bug?
Can’t find anything like this by searching online, perhaps you can help. It was feeding on what appeared to be a giant stinging nettle, secreting what I guess is nettle venom from its thorny spines. Length: approx 2 1/4″
Paul

questionmark cat ? Caterpillar identified as Yellow Coster

Hi Paul,
We originally thought this might be the caterpillar of the Question Mark, Polygonia interrogationis. But, the following letter just arrived.

(04/10/2007) Caterpillar Identifications
Hello WTB,
Having reared and photographed several hundred species of butterflies (no time for moths) for the past 25+ years, I thought you’d appreciate knowing two IDs that I noticed while quickly scanning your caterpillar pages last night . . .
? Caterpillar (04/27/2006) — “Yellow coster”, Acraea issoria (Nymphalidae, Heliconiinae, Acraeini); larval foodplant: many Urticaceae, e.g., non-stinging Boehmeria and Debregeasia in Taiwan and India. See pix of caterpillars and chrysalis at < http://nc.kl.edu.tw/bbs/showthread.php?t=7943 > (accompanying text in Chinese). I hope this information is helpful and of some interest. Best wishes,
Keith Wolfe
Antioch, CA

Posted 27 April 2006 § brush footed butterfly caterpillars ‡ Comments (0) °

Sulpher Chrysalis

Do you recognize this chrysalis?
Charlene

sulphur chrysalis Sulpher Chrysalis

Charlene,
The orneriness in us wants to just reply “yes” and leave it at that, but we do not have a representative image on the site and are happy to have your Sulphur Butterfly Chrysalis. Since you did not provide us with a location and since your image is cropped oddly, we are not sure of the species. If you are in the American Southwest, it is probably a Senna Sulphur, Phoebis sennae, that feeds on cassia.

Great new image & a friend
Yes, sorry. My husband noticed I had supplied NO info. I’ll try and take a better picture. I am in Houston. And I do have a cassia in the backyard. Glad to know it is doing it’s job. I considered taking the plant out because it is quite ugly. I tried to trim it and did a very poor job. I’ll keep it around now. Thanks for the info. It was a rather ugly looking . How do such things turn into beauties??? By the way, I loved your sight and will be sure to pass it on to my friends!! This is really cool! I went outside to take a better picture of the chrysalis that I sent yesterday and some information on it and look what I found!! How strange that they crawled to the same place to “hang out” together!!!! Their host plant is across the yard. I live in Houston and would love an identification of these beauties. Thank you,
Charlene

sulphur chrysalis cat Sulpher Chrysalis

Hi again Charlene,
We are certain you have a Senna Sulphur caterpillar and chrysalis. Wait for the gorgeous clear yellow butterflies to emerge and send a photo of them as well. They are strong fliers and difficult to approach.

Posted 25 April 2006 § butterfly caterpillars ‡ Comments (0) °

Mystery Sphinx

caterpillar
Hello there! I have to start by saying what an impressive site you have! I am a fifth grade teacher in San Antonio Texas and my students happened to find this rather large caterpillar on their playground. They were very interested in it and want to keep it to see if it will grow into a butterfly or moth. We did some research on different caterpillars and compared them to what this one looks like. The closest match we could find was to the eyed hawk moth, but all references to the eyed hawk moth came from Europe. I found a moth that looks like the eyed hawk moth on your website called the Cerisy’s moth and searched the internet for pics of a cerisy’s caterpillar to no avail. We would really like to know what we have…. Our caterpillar is about 3 inches long and was found on the ground. He is lime green with diagonal white stripes and some pink dots (I think those are the spiracles) There are trees nearby and I think they are willow trees, but not positive. We put our little friend in an aquarium with a mesh top and some tree branches. It eats like crazy and seems to be happy with what we gave it. Can you identify him for us? We are hoping to see him turn into the moth before school gets out.
Sincerely,
Christie and her very interested fifth graders.

sphinx cat christie Mystery Sphinx

Hi Christie and Students,
This is definitely a Sphinx Moth Caterpillar. We recommend Bill Oehlke’s awesome site, but it will take some major searching. We have seen this caterpillar before, but can’t put our finger on a name just yet. Meanwhile we will post until it is identified. Thanks for your touching letter.

Posted 25 April 2006 § Hornworms ‡ Comments (0) °

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