He's done eating the passionflower and ready to grow wings!
I believe this is a fritillary (sp) catepillar
They are swarming what's left of my passionflower vine. BTW, anyone know how they got here?? (The vine was given to me by a friend, she dug it from the side of her barn)
Radar, as near as I can tell. I had never had these cats before. This year I put in a passion vine and there they were. Decimated the passion vine.
Osteole - there may have been eggs on the vine when she gave it to you .. Usually on the tender new growth - small yellow eggs. It's amazing how they can find the passion vines. I dig up the runners that come up in the yard, put in pots and move quite far away from the main vine - they still find them! I'm always moving cats from my poted vines to the main vine!
These babies have been eating my passion vines for the last 3 years, this year, I finally had enough passion vine to handle the load and they haven't totally eaten it all yet!!
You'll also get zebra longwings on the passion vine.
I love the passion vine, but I love the butterflies more - so I just decided to grow enough for both of us to enjoy! Got about 80' of fence line in passion vine now.
Onalee
What a cool looking caterpiller! Thanks for sharing the pic.
-Julie
oh gracious yes osteole .. very nice pic !!
Ahh, your 'boating/marina' theme has been sortee carried over to HIS house too!! .
.. LOL .. Jes luv it !! ..
Will zebra longwings go all the way to zone 7? Same question with giant swallowtials, I know something's been eating my grapefruit trees (potted and put out during warm weather) but I don't know the culprit.
You may be able to check here to see what butterflies come to your area:
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/bflyusa.htm
Onalee
A reliable site. I used to go there all the time when I did my searches for species in the field. Thanks!
What a GREAT website. Thanks for providing that link. Super resource.
