silver and gold

Hard to believe nature produces something like this. A very modern metallic look. Any ideas on what it is?

another view

Yikes! Hard to believe a nasty little guy like that can be such pretty colors, isn't it?

Don't know either, but can't wait to find out.

Who says it's nasty?

It's a caterpillar, isn't it? I assume it is making a meal out of some part of your plant.

Quite beautiful. If I found it, I'd put it in a jar with food to see what it was when it hatched.

Kept one over the winter once, which turned into a very large brown moth in the spring.

Don't tell me it is on a lily??? Maybe an iris from the look of the leaf.

It's a chrysalis? on a Sib leaf. I thought it was very beautiful and seeing there has been so much action on this forum, I thought I'd post it for the few that might come by.

That's really cool echoes. I would do what Ginny said, put it in a jar and see what it turns into. I did that with some coccoons with one of my grade one classes years ago. It was fun when they turned into butterflies and we let them go in the spring.

Sandy

Well isn't that pretty..
I have a few caterpillars on my swamp milk weed.. hope they turn into pretty butterflies..
Wilma

I'm glad you all like my pictures. I will research and try and find out what butterfly/moth it is.

Donna went camping for the weekend echoes so she probably won't see this until Sunday. I just thought I'd let you know so you won't wonder why she's not responding right away.

It can wait. Thanks Sandy.

it is beautiful. what an inspiration for a glass artist - I can see a large one as a garden ornament. now if only i had artistic talent!!

I grew some hollyhocks from seed this year. I understand they are good host plants for butterflies to lay their eggs on. So I have big hopes for next year.

Too cool! You need to post both the chrysalis pic on the Butterfly forum. You might get an ID. I can't wait to see what it is either.

Yes, I think that's what I'll do. That would be the best place to ask. Of course it may be easier to ID when it comes out.

You don't have to wait! Its the chrysalis of a red admiral butterfly. We have an Onopordum (scotch thistle) at our botanical garden that was devoured by these fuzzy black caterpillars...they are now all tucked away in their chrysalis, like little Christmas tree ornaments awaiting emerging in the next week or two. The golden spots are the give away for red admiral.

What a gorgeous crysalis echoes and such an amazing find (and pics). I've never seen any that looks like those.

It is now in a jar, so I hope it survives and maybe we will get to know what it is. Very difficult for me to take pictures of something so small. Only a couple turned out not blurry when I downloaded them to the puter.

Don't know how I missed Todd's reply up there. Thanks Todd. My internet service has been the pits lately, and sometimes, new isn't new when I finally get it working. Now I have to figure out if I've ever seen a Red Admiral around here.

Oh, sure now I remember. The caterpillar is pretty forgetable though. We don't have too many Red Admirals and I don't remember ever finding a chrysalis like that before, but then I wasn't always looking.

This message was edited Aug 20, 2005 3:51 PM

Red Admirals are very common here but I've never seen a chrysalis. I didn't know they were so pretty.

I'm betting they came up with the heat wave we got from Texas. During that heat wave we had so many unusual butterflies (including the Painted Ladies) that are very rarely (if ever) seen up here.

edited to say here's an interesting article, regarding butterflies, from The Winnipeg Free Press.: http://www.naturenorth.com/column/col18.html