Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Caterpillar Identification...Help!, 0 by TexasPuddyPrint

TexasPuddyPrint wrote:
I haven't been able to identify this caterpillar. Was leaning towards some type of hairstreak or blue...but just can't figure it out. Maybe it's a moth. I really don't know...for all I know it's a sawfly larva!!!

Found four of these climbing up on my wooden privacy fence (deep south tip of Texas - smack dab too close to Mexico). I have numerous plants around the area where I found them...only the four o' clocks have been eaten...but not sure by what. Also have passiflora (maypop), aristolochia elegans (calico flower), aristolochia fimbriata (white veined dutchman's pipe), ipomoea ochracea (yellow morning glory), Pride of Barbados trees, sassafras, paw paw, turk's cap hibiscus, milkweed, cestrum parquii, citrus trees and grass. Again...only four o'clocks have been eaten by something.

I recall finding one that look extremely similar to these about two years ago but it was more pink in color with a black head and black forelegs. I found that one on my Mexican Flame Vine and gave it to a fellow butterflier to raise but it died.

Am going to keep these four in a cat cage and see if they will eat...have tossed all kinds of leaves in there :o) Maybe they were on their way to pupating and that's why they were crawling up the wooden fence. Time will tell.

Here's a description: small - one quarter to less than one half of an inch long and a little less than one eighth of inch wide. Light pink to beige in color. The body has chevron like protrusions and each tip has a little hair or something like a tiny spine sticking out of it. They don't sting...or at least I haven't been hurt by handling them so far :o)

~ Cat


This message was edited Jun 15, 2007 11:41 AM