Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Pipevine Swallowtail Pillars, 1 by debnes_dfw_tx

debnes_dfw_tx wrote:
Y'all already know how concerned I was about the Pipevine ST eggs on the A. elegans. Well, I set out today to find a meaty pipevine, and they had only one at Tinkers. I had them tag it for me and went to pick it up this afternoon. It had eggs on it!! Besides that Tim had some wild pipevines growing on the perimeter on the nursery that were crawling with Pipevine ST pillars!!! Sure I adopted 4 of the ones in the last instars while I was at it.
The plant I bought is Aristolochia fimbrata. These are gregarious caterpillars laid in clusters. They stay in a group until their last instar where they crawl to find a place to pupate. That being said, they can really chow down!! ...And they frass a lot too. They use their antennae to crawl around and feel where they are going, (maybe their vision isn't so good).