He's SO tiny only ---- long. In any case I found him crawling on one of my Sweet Alice seedlings. He's too cute to destroy, but I would remove him from the garden if I found out he's an "enemy" ;-)
-Julie
Is this a caterpillar or some other critter?
Doesn't seem to be doing any harm. Never seen anything quite like that.
John
Do you have alder trees there. Looks a bit like an alder sawfly cat.
??? Not this guy.
http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=0805038
This is where i found it but cannot find another. Will keep looking
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://homepage.eircom.net/~hedgerow4/white-caterpillar.JPG&imgrefurl=http://homepage.eircom.net/~hedgerow4/aug11.htm&h=400&w=400&sz=67&tbnid=tFD-0WvsZGwJ:&tbnh=120&tbnw=120&start=17&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcaterpillar,%2Bwhite%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26c2coff%3D1%26sa%3DG
frogsrus, your link doesn't work. I'm not sure what alder trees are or if we have them here, but I'll go search for a photo and then let you know. I did a search on Alder Sawfly and found this image of the larva: http://www.dhsmall.net/images/alder_sawfly_larva.htm It sure is similar! How'd you do that?
John, I think I saw one of these last year too, but not again until now. I'm really curious about what in the world they turn out to be.
-Julie
What is that waxy coating? I couldn't find anythang like it. Interesting! You could put it in a container with some of its food and wait.
John
I thought about that too John, but he didn't appear to have been actually eating the Alyssum....so I was afraid if I put him in with that, he might starve. In any case, I searched for him this morning to no avail. Hopefully I'll see another one (if he's a "good guy" that is LOL). I sure hope he's NOT one of those sawflies....the only info I got on any type of sawfly just talked about all the damage they do! YIKES!
Edited to answer your first question: I dunno what the waxy coating is either and couldn't find any info on it.
-Julie
This message was edited Apr 14, 2005 12:43 PM
Got it! I emailed the owner of a web site that specializes in images of mostly butterflies and moths in Israel as well as a few other creepy crawlies indigenous to Israel. He emailed me back already and said
Quoting:
this larva belongs to a beetle named: Scymnus levaillanti. (skimnus sair in hebrew), it is 1 mm long beetle (very small), the larva and the beetle eats different species of Aphids, so the larva and the beetle are friendly to your garden and make a natural pests control.
the beetle is very nice looking, black with 2 golden spots, but too small to notice.
Here's an image that shows a different species of Scymnus beetle about the same size as "my" little guy. http://entowww.tamu.edu/images/insects/common/images/b-txt/bimg158.html
-Julie
Golly Julie:
It's definitely a Black Lady Bug
Now, ain't that cool! Good work.
Hey imway~
John:
We have to keep the people on their toes. Help me.
?Que
How about that!