Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 64, 1 by mellielong

mellielong wrote:
So I've been raising some Long-Tailed Skippers again. When I was out collecting them, I noticed there was one that was a bit larger than the 1st instars I was collecting. He was eating the young seeds of the desmodium and not the leaves which I had never seen one do before. After he got a little bigger, I noticed he wasn't a Long-Tailed Skipper at all! He was some kind of skipper though, and after some research I determined he was a Dorantes skipper!

I've seen a few of them flying around over the years, but this was my first caterpillar. I placed him next to a Long-Tailed skipper cat so you can see the difference. Long-Tailed is on the left and had red marks on his face and a yellow stripe that turns to orange near the tail. The Dorantes is on the right and is a bit more plain.

Linda, my Polydamas cats have the same problem and they don't listen to me either.