I was in the yard this morning taking pictures of what's blooming in the garden when i noticed this tiny caterpillar on this plant. I only know so far my gulf fritillary cat so this one's not so familiar looking to me.
Any info would be highly appreciated. New to butterfly gardening and still learning the ropes ;-)
Eileen
Almost looks like a tiny Wooly Bear cat. Could be an early instar, I suppose. Any idea what plant it's on?
Melanie
i found it on a purslane plant. thanks for the info I will check on it and see if it still there
I agree with Melanie that it is likely to be a wooly bear. However, with many caterpillars the early instars aren't exactly like the later ones and it is a lot easier to ID them when they are older. I would recommend getting the book "Caterpillars of Eastern North America" by David Wagner, which is the best source I've found for identifying the caterpillars I find in my woods. You can search by host plants and by name of butterfly, although unfortunately many list as host plant "multiple types of low lying herbaceous plants", as does the wooly bear, so it doesn't come up under purslane.
Karen
You could also post on the DG forum "insect and spider identification." There are some great people over there who know all there it know about crawling and flying critters.
