What is this caterpillar?
Can you identify this caterpillar? I found this in Nov 2007 in the Sutter Buttes of California. It was on the ground about 30 feet from a cluster of pupas that I found attached to a rock. Not sure if they are related. Thank You,
Richard Coleman
Hi Richard,
Your caterpillars are Pipevine Swallowtails, Battus philenor, and the Chrysalis is also from the Pipevine Swallowtail. Your photo does not show the silken girdle thread that keeps the chrysalis upright. This is a characteristic of the chrysalis of most swallowtails.