Woohoo Painted Lady cats

Duh...can you believe the back fields at the ranch are full of cudweed?! I had no idea what that plant was until today (well, okay, it's after midnight...so make that Saturday). I couldn't find the plant in my native plant guide but remember MissSherry post about cudweed and the caterpillar nests (at least I think it was MissSherry who posted that).

Anyway...I saw the proverbial nest and took a peek! It was a Painted Lady caterpillar!!! Woohoo!!! I found several others once I got the hang of it. Won't tell you how many times I yelped when a spider jumped out!!! I think I have leared to tell the difference between a caterpillar nest and a spider nest through lots of trial and error :o)

~ Cat

...another Painted Lady cat nest :o)

~ Cat

..and another :o)

Yippee!!!

~ Cat

That is fascinating, Cat! I didn't know that the Painted Lady cats made "nests". Looks like you'll be seeing lots of PL butterflies this year! AWESOME!!!! :-)

We have similar caterpillars, and of course my 4th grader who would know a Painted Lady is at camp. They have fearful-looking branched bristles, and are devouring my licorice plant (helichrys?) but if they are nice butterfly caterpillars I want to leave them. Thanks for the lead, I will do some more surfing. Couldn't find good leads in any of my books!

wow Cat you have such great BF's out there

Those are so neat looking! How lucky you are Cat! The spider wouldn't be my favorite thing to find in the nest either! Keep us posted with pics.