Who is this cat?

This is probably a common caterpillar, but not one with which I am familiar.

It is Granny Apple Green with a faint yellow stripe down its side that ends in the black "thorn" at its tail.

Any help with I.D. and whether it is friend or foe, and what it likes to eat will be greatly appreciated. I accidentally knocked it out of an area with ferns, Virginia Creeper, and Alstromerias today while cleaning out a spot to put in a new trellis. It seems very inactive -- I think it is already at the state of wanting to form a chrysalis.

Thanks,

Jeremy

It looks kind of like a caterpillar from the Sulphur family. (Beautiful yellow butterflies!) The coloring and stripes are typical of sulphur cats. Do you have any cassia or asters or possibly herbs in the bean family in your yard? If so, that may be it's host plant.

I would going to venture a guess of a hummingbird sphinx moth, because of the horn, but I'm not sure. Can you get another picture?

It's definitely a Hornworm but without a clear pic not sure what it will turn out to be. Some turn out to be really pretty hummingbird moths and some just large plain moths. If you want to see you could put it in a bowl with some dirt and it will burrow underneath and make a cocoon. Then you have to wait for it to hatch, which could be several months.

Sorry for the out of focus photo -- it is about the best I can do with my now antiquated 5 year old digital camera -- but I'll try again today to see if I can get a clearer shot of it.

I do have a large Winter Cassia (Senna bicapsularis) and a lot of sulfur butterflies visit my flutterby garden, so it could be one of the sulphur butterflies, as conjectured above.

Thanks for your help. I never knew there were caterpillars that burrowed to coccoon! I'll give it some dirt in the bug keeper plastic ventilated box where I have it and see what happens.

Jeremy

Not a sulfur...definitely a hornworm moth of some kind. Is it this one?

Here's another of him.

Very similar, but unless my green cat is a mutant of some sort, it doesn't have the vertical sprialling white stripes -- just one faint yellow stripe down both sides that ends in a black horn at the tail.

It is definitely one that burrows to pupate! I put some potting soil in the bug box and it disappeared within an instant. I put some Cassia leaves in the box also, just in case it is a sulfur, but I think all it wants to do now is sleep and emerge in whatever new life it has inside it.

Jeremy

Jeremy - If it burrowed in the dirt - it is most likely some sort of hornworm. Give it about 8-14 days and see what comes out! :-) Then take a photo before you release it and post it here for all of us to see! :-)

Yes, please do...the only picture I found that has a yellow stripe and not the v's was the hummingbird moth. I can't wait to see what it is.

Well, I do have frequent visitations from the hummingbird moths -- they sip at the nectar from my Butterfly gingers (Hedychiums), Pentas, and other plants. I thought I had a true alien darting around in the ginger patch one night when the glow of my porch light caused the eyes of the hummingbird moth to glow with a bright fluorescent green incandescence in the bushes. Very eerie, but wonderful when I realized what it was!

Jeremy

The green one I posted was the Hummingbird Moth.

I know.... this is the one I was thinking of, it has a stripe, maybe they are the same



http://www.fcps.edu/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/hummingbird_moth

Let me try again

http://www.fcps.edu/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/hummingbird_moth.htm

I just love the Clearwing moths! I've had a few but normally see the White-lined Sphinx moth. I haven't found an online guide yet that doesn't mix both the tomato and the tobacco cat together so I'm not sure which Karen's is. I think it will take more than a couple of weeks to eclose, but maybe not in FL. Just don't throw it out if it takes a few months. I had one that I thought was never going to come out and one day months later it just "appeared".

Jax, it's definitely a HORNworm because of the HORN on it's end. They are the only ones with those so they are easy to ID.

Keep an eye out for those Sulphur cats tho! They are beautiful! Look at the difference on another thread of Karen's.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/665721/

Jeremy ..

There can be quite a number of variables present (and NOT present) .. in the many stages/ages of an individual species .. of quite a few caterpillars (colors and patterns): especially the Sphinx moth caterpillars.

One can find .. a seemingly plain pink caterpillar one day .. and a day or so later; the same lil critter is now green with blotches, spots, diagonal lines, stripes, and/or 'eye' spots! With still a brown splotchy phase to come .. (lol)

An off-the-wall guess I'm chunkin' atcha .. but, the Nessus Sphinx moth caterpillar is a good contender for Florida also.

Here's a nice selection {below} of various caterpillars for ya to take a gander of .. and, hopefully, you'll recognize your feller in there (somewhere). Note: there'll be quite a few to view .. once the page opens entirely. So, allow it time > http://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&keys=caterpillar&search=Search

* Jes in case, the link above ^ doesn't function/open correctly: here's a 'compressed' link via tinyurl.com HERE > http://tinyurl.com/yemcjc

- Magpye

Wow, just spent some time on that site, Magpye and didn't realize how many horned cats there were. I think now that mine (above) was a tobacco hornworm....a sphinx moth but not a hummingbird moth. It just happened that soon after the cat got loose from the soil, I saw a hummingbird moth. But 2 + 2 does not always = 4 (lol).

Aw Jax!
What a cute lil baby-wing ya have there...and living where you do, I would rather set it loose on a plant it'll eat than put him in a bowl of dirt... (of course it's gonna hide if given dirt, even prematurly.) From my limited witness, they're usually at least 3 inches long before they are ready to make a cocoon. Hornworms seem to be very versatile about their host plants. I'd look for what was in the patch you found him for chewage befitting his wee jaws and missing foliage. He slugish cuz he's hungry. Their spiracles are along their sides, and if touched by humans can get clogged up, and make them slugish too...very suseptible to our GERMS too.

Their main threat are Bwasps, (and scared humans with big clown shoes), but personally I like to see them out free in the wild. I love these lil guys!! My kids turned over a rock a few weeks ago and found a really long brown one, (bout 3.5 in.). Then they set the rock back down and left it alone like I told them to, LOL.. I checked on it a day or so later and saw a hole. I think it's ok now and I may or may not see it emerge next Spring..:o). I think found a perfect place to sleep for the winter though.

I really like all the replies you flushed out Jax, DGers are the most helpful people....

Keep posting what happens if ya can, Jax. {:o)O<

:oDeb

Thanks, Mag, for the bug site link. I'll forward it to my local gardening friends that are like-minded bug investigators.

Deb, I share your concerns that the caterpillar I captured may be hungry. I think, though, it may have already been buried when I discovered it. I was pulling up sword ferns and Virginia Creeper that were amongst my Alstromeria patch, so I'm not sure there is anything there it would have been eating. I tossed some Cassia leaves (Senna bicapsularis) into its box, just in case it was a sulphur butterfly moth, but the cat has remained in its burrow. I think it was just "playing possum" when it was acting sluggish. Later on when I poked at it gently, it did its thing of whipping back and forth as if to attack with its horn, and it sure scurried away quickly when I put the soil in the box. When I found it, our ubiquitous fire ants were already about to munch down on it, so I thought it would be better off in the protected environment of the ventilated plastic "shoe box" type container made especially for bug holding. Hopefully, all will go well and we will know for sure who it is in a few weeks or months.

Jeremy

Good work Jeremy!
Now that ya say it came up with the roots, the Clearwings eat roots of Creepers, and Climantis type plants..I believe..

Just a thought.

Deb

tropicalkaren ..
I've had similar experiences. I'd jes swear to goodnes that 'this' bug is the one - only to find a spread of other possibilities elsewhere: & it then knocks your 'settled' ID .. to timbuck2! (ha!) Can certainly relate (and attest), to 2+2 not always equaling 4. It jes depends on all the 'factors'. For if you add 2 oranges and 2 apples .. by golly, you haint simply got 4 of one or the other. Some of them variables come into the equation ;-) (jes some funnin' hillbilly 'rithmatik)

Now, Deb ..
What in tarnation, is a 'bwasp'? (heehee)
(a wee devious bit of gigglin' goin' on here)

Jeremy ..
Did ya find any of those caterpillar images that 'matched' yours?

- - - -

Another couply notes .. about the BugGuide.net site:

(1) Most times .. (we) enter a generalized bug, as a plural (ie: mothS, caterpillarS, beeS, etc.) ..
but, I accidentally 'discovered' that there will be more possibilities shown, if one uses the singlular form - - with no 's'.

(2) This FYI, is especially helpful .. when there are a significant # of thumbnail image 'possibilities', displayed on the 'results' page:
Right-click, on a suspect image and select: 'Open Link in New Tab' (or, 'New Window') - - so the info will be easily accessible to check out .. AND eliminating the need of the delay in awaiting the (initial lengthy time-consuming) page with the oodles of 'bugs', to re-load!. Another bug can be viewed by right-clicking on another thumbnail image ..

Even with my particular DSL connection - that {caterpillar page}, takes several minutes to fully load ..

(now, don't nobody come a poppin' my lil bubble - by tellin' me that there are clear instructions, posted on the web site already!) .. LOL

((huggs))

- Magpye

My DSL connection was also balking at opening the bug I.D. pages, so I haven't had a chance to look through the "mug shots" to see if I can spot my green caterpillar. The caterpillar seems to have happily dug down into the potting soil I provided and has not reemerged. I have learned another new thing -- that some caterpillars eat roots! So, I'll stick a smorgasbord of plants with roots from the area where I found the cat and see if it still wants to eat or just sleep and pupate.

Jeremy

If it dug down into the soil it's going to make it's cocoon. Did it turn a darker color yet? The first caterpillar I ever found here years ago was a Tersa Spinx moth. I thought I had killed it because it turned brownish purple suddenly and just layed there. It pupated under some paper towels and eclosed about 6-9 months later. I was quite surprised when I finally saw it.

They will "play dead" when you take move them. Every one that I've ever taken off of a plant (always on a stem) has stood up in sort of an S shape and never moved. I could lay them down and they would just stay in that same position!

Debnes, where did you read that about the Clearwing moths eating roots? I've never heard or read that and can't seem to find it.