Are you looking at me?

Well,Im finally being rewarded for the years of growing plants for cats. First I had Question Marks on my hops,then a lil black cat shaped like a spicebush cat but on a paw-paw tree and my info said paw-paws were for zebras but there's pots of spicebush plants next to the paw-paws so maybe he just got lost and confused. Had another cat on the rue and parsley but it ate them all and disappeared. NOW I have this lil chubby spicebush cat munching the potted plants in the greenhouse. It has about 6 other buddies on there too but they've enclosed themselves in folded leaves and I don't want to disturb them by opening the leaves for pictures.

They are such cool looking cats!! I would love to find one of those!

Hi Peggie,

Is this the same type of cat.? I just found this 'lil one, not a full grown one yet. I'd like to raise it indoor. What's that plant that yours is munching on?

I afraid mine has fallen off its hostplant. And I have got to find some food for it quickly! Cute little thing!!!

Ooops never mind my question. Mystery is solved, mine is a Tersa Sphinx moth's cat. Pentas, pentas and more pentas! LOL.

I find spinx moth cats a lot. They do look a bit like the spicebush cats but spinx has sevearl "eyes".

Spicebush cats host on spicebush and sassafrass. That spicebush in the pix. I have yet to ever find them on sassafrass.

In WV there are plenty on the sassafras. In fact, when Dad went on vacation this year I made him dig one up and bring it back for me.

Melanie

I have several sassafrass growing in my yard but I 've never seen any cats on them.

I bought an entire Sassafrass tree for the SB ST on it. The lady wouldn't let me move them to a smaller Spicebush plant. I bought them both 'cause the SB had eggs. Despite covering it w/ frostcloth envelope to protect them from the birds and keep the chrysalids, the little devils got away! I've seen the B'Flies around but haven't seen any cats since. POOH!

Maggie

Oh Maggie,that is a shame.

I grew a BUNCH of aristolochia tomentosa for pipevine swallow tail but have had no takers so far.

Bigred,

RE: The cats/B'Flies- at least I know they are in the area.
RE: Growing host plants: Give it time. I had some host plants for three years before I got more than a transient butterfly. It helped a lot when I was able to locate plants w/ eggs or cats on them. That always power boosted my population. I think they must try to stay around where they hatch unless they are migrating monarchs of course. W/ BSTs, I found a nursery growing parsley/dill/fennel for folks to eat and they did not appreciate the caterpillars. I bought their plants that had eggs on them and moved all the caterpillars I could find to the plants I was buying.

Maggie

What herbs I grow...I most grow for cats.

I have seen a lot more variety of BF in the yard this year. Not experinced enough to id them all yet. The Question Marks were a new find for me this year and I'm almost positive I saw a Azure yesterday but I was trying to get my dog in the house and it was gone by the time I got back out side.

I've been study my BF ref. books,trying to learn the sutble differnces between look-a-likes but don't know what good it will do me since I can't ever get close enough.

Bigred
Me too, except for the purple ruffles basil, that's for Gazpacho.

Ooh, I'd love to see a Question Mark!

It takes time, I know by the cats that I've had both PVS and Polydamus but I too cannot get close enough to see the difference.
Maggie

I found a newly emerged Luna moth this morning on an azalea bush. Found another BIG moth, yellow w/ rusty red spots on the back of hub's truck...very pretty stocky looking feller....or gal

Peggy, please send those lovelies my way. lol.

Feast or famine...not much else with the Spicebush ST's I've had! Either none or else too many cats and eggs. I used to put up cages around the plants covered with screening to keep the butterflies off at time because there would be only so much foliage. With no plants around here in the wild, I didn't want the cats starving.

I've got quite a few spicebushes,they mulched about a 3rd. The aristolochia,they haven't touch at all.All my parsley and rue have been munched to nubs but they haven't found the fennel yet...which is good cause it's still tiny.Nothing has munched the paw-paw yet...I belive it's the zebra swallowtails that host on those and I have LOTS of thos BF on my flowers. Don't know why they aren't laying eggs on the paw-paws.

I have had LOTS of giant swallowtails this year. All those Question Mark cats on the hops earlier and a couple ?BF.

Wished I had gotten pix of that yellow spotted moth but hub's was in the truck waiting on me and he thinks all of the tiny critters are JUST bugs.

I tried a few time to put cats in cages to watch morph but they all died so I'm leaving it up to Mother Nature to watch out after her children.

BigRed,

Sorry raising them didn't work for you. I've been able to raise very few sulphurs successfully, I just gave up figuring, like you, Ma Nature was going to have to take care of it.
RE: Your moth: Was it this one? Scroll down a little on this page. http://www.hsu.edu/content.aspx?id=6583
Mint-loving Pyrausta Moth (Pyrausta acrionalis)
Primary food plants:
Larvae feed on the leaves of mint plants.
Wingspan:
3/5 - 7/10 in. (1.4 - 1.8 cm)
Season:
April - October
Description:
The deep rose to violet-colored forewings have yellow along the leading edge, terminal areas, antemedial and postmedial lines, and the fringes of the wings. Yellow blotches are located in the middle area of the forewings. A yellow bar is positioned at the center of the rose to gray hindwings.

Was it a base color w/ yellow spots or yellow w/ other spots?
Maggie

nope,not him(her) very stocky fellar,felty/fuzzy body,body color pale yellow(not tan,not buff...pale almost primrose yellow)w/ random rusty red spots...maybe 2 inches across wing span

I'm beginning to appreciate moths as much as BF

Any of these?
http://wildflowers.jdcc.edu/Butterfly.html
Maggie

Hi Maggie, what do Red-spotted Purple use for hostplants? Wild Cherries? I've seen a couple puddling in the garden but haven't found any larvae.

LL:

http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=1785 This is the site, the text below is an excerpt from that page.

Caterpillar hosts: Leaves of many species of trees and shrubs including wild cherry (Prunus), aspen, poplar, cottonwood (Populus), oaks (Quercus), hawthorn (Crataegus), deerberry (Vaccinium stamineum), birch (Betula), willows (Salix), basswood (Tilia), and shadbush (Amelanchier).

Maggie

Many thanks.

You betcha!
Maggie

I still don't see it on this link either. GREAT! People are gonna think I'm smoking wacky weed again like the time I report finding a day-glo orange snake in my greenhouse....LOL

Bidred,

This doesn't quite fit your description but I'm reaching. http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/showimage/44/
I'm 100% positive this is not what you're looking for but the color is gorgeous. http://bugguide.net/node/view/47722/bgimage


http://www.hsu.edu/content.aspx?id=6592 This page has all the moths of Arkansas on it. you might just have to click on each kind @ the left. I picked one out that might be what you're looking for but it's a longshot. You can also try asking here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/bugid/all/
Obtuse Yellow (Azenia (=Stiriodes) obtusa)
A distinguishing characteristic of this species is the three large, brownish spots located on the leading edges of the yellow forewings. Two smaller spots are also often present.


Hope this helps,
Maggie