A complete Hackberry Emperor (Asterocampa celtis) collection
Dear Lisa Anne and Daniel,
Today I want to add some more beauty to your wonderful site. It feels prestiguous to be published on it. Here I am sending the picture collection of the Hackberry Emperor to you. It shows the main stages from when one can find them as young caterpillars in early spring until the butterfly is hatched. For those people who want to distinguish the young stages from the Tawny Emperor (A. clyton), one should pay attention to the almost black head of the very young caterpillars.
In later caterpillar instars, the horns of the hackberry Emperor (A. celtis) have much shorter spines. The older caterpillars have typical white stripes which are not in line with the head-tail body axis. These stripes will also be visible on the pupa and are white and clearly visible on the pupa.
The butterfly resembles to the Painted Lady, and care should be taken when identifying it. So, there are still a few pictures of the Tawny Emperor coming. It can’t take long until the photo model is close to hatch. Until then, have a nice weekend, and I will get back to you soon with the last batch of pictures for this spring.
Best regards,
Thomas
Madison/Wisconsin
Hi again Thomas,
We are so lucky to get each awesome batch of images you send our way. Your patience in unparalleled. Not only do you raise all these wonderful caterpillars, you get amazing photographs of all the stages. If we are nearing the end of the photos for this season, we can’t wait to see what next spring will bring. Have a great day.
Daniel and Lisa Anne
