While in Fla on our vacation last week, I bought a Passiflora incarnata potted plant from Fla Native Plants in Sarasota & the plant had small yellow eggs on it. A week later, these orange caterpillars with black prickles showed up. What butterfly is it & what will it look like? Will the caterpillars denude & kill the host plant? what other plants can this cutie feed on in my greenhouse? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Looks like a Gulf Fritillary. Lovely! They'll eat a lot of your plant, but it's well worth it to see these little guys. I hope your plant is a good size. The Gulf Frits use the Passion Vines for host plant. Visit this link:
http://www.sasionline.org/fritillary/fritillary2.html
Yep, you are out of luck trying to replace it's lunch with something else. They won't kill the plant but they will eat quite a bit of it, depending on how many cats you have and how big it is. I was saying in another post, that I don't know if they eat the blooms. I've never heard anyone mention it. Did you touch the cat? It's spiney things are actually really soft, which is really funny since they look so scary!
Congratulations.
You are an official den mother. But how are you going to get the little Gulf Frits back here to Sarasota? Otherwise we'll miss them! Hope your greenhouse has windows you can open.
You are so lucky! Warmer weather is headed your way. :-)
The frits will leave you with naught but stems. I had a Belotti that covered a 6x10 section of fence and they ate the WHOLE thing. I was less than amused. Ate nothing else though. I had not a one until i planted the passion vine. If you plant it they will come in a hurry!
OK The war is on!
Quick Henry, the Flit!
See, I told you Flyboy! Frogs, I've always heard that the will devour the vine, but no one ever mentioned if they ate the blooms too. Do they? (shhh...don't tell Flyboy)
Now I know to look for the "little yellow eggs." And, who knows how to make omelets out of little orange eggs?
koncrete~:
I am relieved to report, "No yellow eggs." To save the Passiflora, what's another butterfly food I can leave nearby, with appropriate signage, of course?
I doubt the cats will kill it, Brad.
imway~:
I hope not. I'm getting to enjoy the pretty Passion blossoms. And did you really see a hummer this year?
Sure did but, not since.
imway~:
Maybe you weren't nice enough to it.
Ha! The weather went sour.
imway~:
I can't figure the little devils out. I've never seen one here in my part of Florida. God only knows how many birds winter here! It's like an aviary. I even have a couple of ugly storks who visit my back yard. But no hummers. Anyhow, be well.
Brad
Maybe you should pose that question in this forum? Two bits you get some ideas from other Floridians.
John
imway~
Thanks for the advice. I did just as you suggested. If two bits is still twenty-five cents, you're on.
Do you see hummers in NJ?
I'm on my way out, but I'll later post a couple of photos from last year.
Another question. Do ladybugs eat these caterpillars? I only see one caterpillar now & a gazillion lady bugs in my greenhouse. Oh Lord.
If they do, I am buying a gazillion ladybugs. These cats ate buds before the flowers opened. They did not seam to eat the opened ones. The flowers died off pretty quickly when there were no more leaves though. They did not pace themselves and the last of the cats starved to death. I had chrysalis hanging all over my yard and house and bbq and any other place they thought fit. Some were 50+ ft from the plant. I had butterflies though.
Did you actually see a dead cat? Two bits says they changed to butterflies before starving to death. Lady bugs don't eat the eggs or cats of butterflies.
John
Yep. We had quite a few croakers. I must be the only one in the immediate area with passion vines. There were still all sizes of cars when the vine was denuded. I am sure the largest of them changed but others were not far enough along. They had several instars to go before maturity.
Ladybugs won't eat Gulf Frit caterpillars although spiders will suck them dry when the cats are young. You will find these dehydrated 'shells' of caterpillars (they will be blackish) around your Passiflora vines. Usually, the GF cat will wander off to pupate instead of pupating on the Passiflora itself. I've had them wander up to 30-feet away and pupate on the strangest places. If you have a red-blossom Passiflora you won't have a 'problem' with GFs because even if the caterpillars hatch, they will eventually die. The poisons in the red Passiflora plants are too toxic to the caterpillars so if you don't want GF cats and you have to have a Passiflora, go for the red flowering ones. (Oh, the Passiflora called Purple Haze is also toxic to the caterpillars and it is a purple flowering one.)
Ok, I saw two of the cats tonight. All is not lost. Probably the others are hiding, too.
Oh tdogmom, I forgot all about how the spiders leave just the flattened cats! eeewwww...
Koncreteblond:
You did me wrong. I was watching for GF's and you told me to get Passifloras. I did, and now I find out that the cats are going to eat the Passiflora. I'm depending quite a great deal on tdogmom's promise that Purple Haze is toxic to cats -- because that's what I got. But I am still sleeping in the yard with lights on to "Flit" any cats who don't get a toxic enough dose. Now, koncret~, honest injun. Is there anything else you're keeping from me?
Gosh, gardening is getting complicated. Oh to return to the days when I was a kid, and just planted radishes.
Brad
Dead cats = 0 butterflies.
I'm happy that cats live -- and thrive -- in someone else's backyard. Maybe that's selfishness. But, heck, with maturity one has a right to think preservation. This talk about "denuding vegetation" gets me leery. I guess that's why i don't get bent out of shape when I get to taste a spoonful of salmon roe.
Anyhow, aren't there enough goodies in the wild to feed the cats. Where did the GF's lay their eggs before Passiflora?
Why the concern over the fate of a passion vine? It is performing its role in the ecology of the GF. You are the steward of this relationship. Better to observe and learn. Can't help but enhance your role as steward.
Yes Brad, I am on a secret mission to populate gardeners yards unsuspectingly with HOST plants! Muahahaha.... I thought you would want something that attracted more GF's! I didn't realize you just wanted the butterflies. I'm sorry, you must return the plant because you can not stay out all night and I can not come protect it. No pretty flowers for you Flyboy. Go buy yourself some zinnias. ;)
Seriously....don't panic! you've not even seen any GF's so there's nothing devouring your plant so far. I didn't know about the Purple Haze vine. That must have come up since I've been at DisneyWorld. I'm certainly not going to try and convince you to get rid of it or any red vines.
imway2dumb, you need to be something better, like... "smarterthantheaveragebear". (not including you Brad) Can we just call you Yogi from now on?
YABBA DABBA DO!
koncrete~:
Thanks. I guess "you get a cat with every vine, but ain't the blossoms sweet."
and imway~:
Thanks for the "steward" classification.
Brad
We all are Brad. One of the cards we're dealt.
imway~
John:
I agree that we all should be "stewards" of "the environment," but you have to agree that we seem to be mostly takers, rather than givers. Symbiotic, is the adjective which describes, generally, how the world should work. And, generally, I do my share. But I rebel at using my exotic fish aquarium as a feed lot for piranhas. I'd prefer buying them food, rather than using up
something I enjoy. So, I'm selfish!
Brad
This message was edited Jun 3, 2005 3:31 PM
I am on my way to get a red passi. If these cats hate it-I have to have it. I will put a passi for the cats in a far corner and the rest are MINE. Geez, if I did not pay the water bills, they would have no passi at all. Even a cat must share lol.
Free will choices. Its not winning or losing that matters. How we play our hand does. Cats don't share. Ask my dog!
imway~:
John:
Does he eat them or just mangle them. Anyhow, try explaining to him that he's destroying butterflies. That should stop him.
Most get et.
Nobody (in their right mind) listens to me
