I posted this over on the Insect ID forum too, but I'm hoping maybe Dale might pop in?
This one is about 2 1/2" long and munching away happily on my honeysuckle vine.
Caterpillar ID help!
Snowberry Clearwing (Hemaris diffinis), the day-flying sphinx moth that is a bumble bee mimic.
Dale Clark
Dalllas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com
Very nice, I raised one of those once.
That's a real beauty!
Thank you so much Dale!! That one's a keeper. :)
It eats honeysuckle you say?? where can I get some ???
LOL Grits! I can always ship you a caterpillar! There are two on the vine. :)
I'm glad Grits brought that
up ... I wish we had more btterflies
So have been working on increasing
habitat.
Can I / should I order cats on the
theory that thet return here later to
breed ?
I wouldn't order any, just plant things they like. If you visit the Hummingbird and Butterfly forum, there's a great sticky topic at the top with plant lists.
So it truly IS a matter of
"plant it and they will come" ?
Yes. There are probably butterflies in your area already, you just need the right plants to attract them and keep them. Also, the butterfly brew works well as does putting a rotten (black) banana or a slice of watermelon in a shady spot to attract them.
Some similar caterpillar without the dots was in my Crossvine
I know the hummingbird
moths cannot resist
moon vine MG !
Baja..Becky go to Dale's site he gave the link on. http://www.dallasbutterflies.com/ (look under butterfly gardening). It has all the host plants listed for the butterflies in our area and more. You will be amazed at his pictures of them, some larvae, pupa, and even eggs to watch for.
Thanks for the url !
Does crossvine/ bignonia have scent ?
The only problem with tomato and tobacco hornworms is the amount of damages in the garden, hummingbird moth is awesome to see tho
If you want to not kill the hornworms, they also like Datura and it is fast growing.
I was excited to see this post. At a plant sale this weekend I had a coral honeysuckle and in trying to make a sale I discovered not one, but two of these cats on the vine. I went crazy and the girls helping did too. The buyer said we could keep the cats; she did not want them, but by the purchase she had caught our excitement and decided to keep the cats. We had MG and NP people in the area but no one recognized the caterpilllar. I checked my coral honeysuckle at home and could not find any. Now I know!
This was the first year I've seen them too frostkay! Isn't it exciting to get others involved too? :)
Hope her excitement continues as they cats start eating the plant she just purchased! LOL!
One of the clearwing evidently hatched today! Found it hanging out on a blade of grass just below the honeysuckle. :)