Insect and Spider Identification: CLOSED: Help ID Cat: buckeye? great s. fritillary? vanessa ssp.???, 1 by Lenka_

Lenka_ wrote:
I usually do not have this problem :)... As most of the time I can quickly ID my cats and if I can't - I do my research and then successfully ID them. Not this one....

I found her sitting on the dead weed - just a dry stalk a few inches off the ground - have no idea what that dry weed used to be. She was apparently trying to escape the rainwater which was standing in that area (darn rains!!!). I assume that
a) she crawled away from host plant to escape the water or
b) got washed away from host plant and ended up where I found her.

But that does not make my life any easier. I found her Saturday so she has been hungry since then. She is small so I can't ID her correctly and don't even know if it's possible...I searched for any host plants I knew in a few feet radius and all that was there - common sunflower, grass (bermuda), some other types of grass (weed grass which looks pretty so I let it stay), then occasional wild begramot, Queen Anne's lace, pink primrose which is everywhere around here (forgot the name) and some other weeds. She was in the area I just mowed about 2 weeks ago. There is no sod there (I only have sod around the house) - so that area was just mud and occasional weeds as the ones listed above. Of course there are more around my property and I have tried to offer her various plants but she does not seem to be interested in any of them....

I offered: violets, snapdragon, nemesia, wisteria, sage, plumbago, licorice vine, mallow, various weeds I picked around the area she was found, bindweed, common sunflower, passionvine (p. incarnata), grasses, candletree leaves, hackberry leaves and could have been smth else...
She seemed a bit interested in snapdragon which led me to beleive she was a buckeye baby, but I have not seen any buckeyes around ...which of course is not in any way an indication of their presence or lack of thereof. My American ladies this summer ate licorice vine so I offered that to her - nope, didn't want anything to do with it. I let her be in her container with a few choces at a time but nothing seemed to interest her. I read vanessa spp. also eat nettle which I surprisingly do not have (I could swear I saw a few somewhere nearby)... and pearly everlasting which I do not have either...

If anyone could assist me with identification or maybe some other host plants to offer her - I'd greatly appreciate it. This is my first year at this new house and I am excited to grow all those new cats I did not have at my old house! So I'd hate for this baby to just die because I could not find her host plant. I also do not want to just release her as I have VERY MANY crawling and flying creatures which have their eyes on her....

Picture attached. I'll try to describe in words as well: she is more of a black in color, spiny, does have horns. I think she has some yellow on her head and some either yellow tiny stripes in between the spikes on her body.