Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Watching Spicebush Caterpillars., 1 by Lily_love

Lily_love wrote:
It's amazes me that it took no time for these caterpillars, and others find their very own hostplants. At one time, I've Parsley, Sassasfras, and Passionflora in one small container for the three types of cats, Parsley for BSTs, Sassasfras for Spicebush, and Passi for the Gulf Frits. cats. They each will quickly detect the new, fresh cutting that was introduced into the container. It's said that these tiny little ones are equipped with chemo-sensors in their feet to find their hostplants. How cool is that?

Back with the topic at hand, my Spicebush cat. It took two hours, the caterpillar was happily on top of the fresh cut Sassasfras. The last few days, it was barren, out in the open since it has transformed from the brownish stage, into the greenish form. I thought rolling inside the leaves to hide during the daylight was a thing of the past. Not so much, after 'Autumn Star' ate her/his share of the new leave, which was about 1/3 of a large leave. It exudes the sticky stuffs that forms the silk and encases itself to 'hide' from the external world. This pix was taken before it 'rolled' itself up inside the leave.