I wasn't really looking for him...I just happened to glance at the flowers when I was walking by them, and there it was, chomping out on what few flowers I have on the poor bush. The plant is Caesalpinia mexicana...I have no idea who the culprit eating it is. Any ideas? My husband and I thought it was camoflauged quite well for its preferences. :-)
I don't know what he is, but he's certainly a purty one!
There used to be a site where you could look up pillars by their host plants, but I can't find it now . ..
Onalee
Here is a site that gives a lot of information on caterpillars and their host plants, but it has not yer enabled me to trace your caterpillar. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/hostplants/
Definitely a pretty pillar. I had some last year that were pink - they were on my pink snapdragons...I wonder if they turn the color of whatever they're eating?
I found a cool site called Bug Guide.Net, and I posted the photo there. It's been tenatively IDed as a morph of the Cloudless Sulphur. They DO take on the color of the flowers that they're eating. We thought it was too perfectly colored! :-))
I forgot to mention that this particular caterpillar likes Cassias and Sennas. I had looked up my Caesalpinia as a host plant, and it listed a couple of butterflies that are way south of me. I'm guessing since my plant is way out of it's natural zone, it was just a matter of time that a local would find it a yummy substitute...kind of like chicken vs. turkey, I guess.
This message was edited Oct 18, 2004 6:36 AM
