The cats and the moths are big, the moths can be up to 4" across. I think they are a pretty moth.
catalpa tree...................what's up with this?
yes, but at night when you don't know what it is.............oooooooooooooooooh! that is the one though. hawkmoth. have to tell my sister.
mamjack, sorry it took so long to get back to you. The tree in the next neighborhood had no leaves left on it. I travelled to a "warmer" part of San Antonio to check out another one, but all of its leaves had fallen too. Soooo, I couldn't smell the leaves. I broke some of the seed pods open and held the seed structure up to a light. The seeds inside are pointed.
Here is a photo I found on the internet. It is difficult to see the seeds inside. I enlarged it and could see that the seeds inside the C. speciosa (northen catalpa) are kind of blunt on the ends; whereas, the seeds inside the C. bignonioides (southern catalpa) are kinda pointed and more elongated.
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ldplants/cabi7.htm
thank you htop. next year...........you gotta do the smell test. take photos.
My son Ben and I see these in sets all across town... He will spot them and identify..."There's a Catalpa Tree, mom!". I noticed that when you see one, you will see at least 2 more in the same area, unless they were cut down.
I love the color and the shape of the leaves and the foot-long pods in late Summer. This one is in my nieces back 40 in Oklahoma. Some of them here were dreadfully effected by the drought this year and got really washed out looking. :-
This one @ DNs house, is about 45-50' tall. This is the top part of it that rises high above all the other trees..
mamjack, I crushed some dried leaves that were still on the tree, but didn't smell a thing.
fly_girl, thanks for the cat photos. They are really good. There ia no photo of the catalpa sphinx moth cat in the BugFiles. It would be great if you added the hawk moth and the sphinx moth cats to the BugFiles.
denes_dfw_tx, wbow, that is a fine catalpa specimen. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Thanks hazel!
And from your discription it looks like the one DN has is a true Southerner.. I do see some that have the really long leaves, and they are the ones that need more water if they are grown here in Texas.
fly, the info about the the Catalpa cats is great... Nice pictures too!
this has been a fun thread to be on. do post those pictures fly girl. they would be a great resource for everyone.
is this true on the catalpa.............if i hard prune them they will come back fuller and healthier?
Unfortunately those pics were off the web, but thanks anyway.
and if anyone knows..........the hawkmoth...............do they do a useful thing? and do these caterpillars crawl into dirt as well because i think i have found them in mine. that one in the picture looks small compared to mama but these things are huge and do you call it a pupa?
They are great pollinators, but are considered a pest by many because of the severe defoliation they can do. They burrow into the ground and pupate, the cocoon is called the pupa. Another name for the cat is the Tobacco Hornworm, and they can get 3-4" long, they are big. The moth is also called the Tobacco Hawkmoth. What's amazing is they can eat tobacco all day and not get cancer.......there should be some research into those guys, don't you think?
Actually personally I don't think it is tobacco that causes cancer, it is what big agricultural chemical companies did to the tobacco that does.
This message was edited Dec 7, 2006 9:17 PM
Good point Deb, you may be right.