I thought it would be fun to show pics of our beloved cats...the Lep kind. LOL
They're so interesting at their different instars, sometimes they can really look different.
This first one is a Saddleback Moth cat, he stung me but he's so cute. I brought him home and fed him Ginger leaves until he pupated on July 28. He's been in his cocoon a long time so I don't know if everything is okay. I'm hoping any day now.
Here he is in his cocoon.
Here's a cloudless sulphur that I found yesterrday. He's so pretty!
Oooh he is pretty, that flower color makes him look orangy.
The sulphurs just amaze me. Mine are green because they are eating leaves. I don't have any flowers on my Cassia yet, just a couple of buds. So cool that they are so yellow when eating the flowers.
Great pictures Fly_girl and knolan.
Terrie
Great pics Flygirl and Knolan. There are some really unique and beautiful cats out there. I would love to post a pic of mine but I just cannot get anything to come out good with my camera. It is either too dark, too light, and mine are not as beautiful as yours but to me they are very special. If I ever get a good pic I will share my babies' pic with ya. Great thread Flygirl.
Leslie
Aah Terrie and Leslie, c'mon.....you have to have 1 favorite cat pic! Just 1?
I've got more but don't want to hog the thread....okay if you insist lol
Thanks for the kudos!
This is one of my Orange Dogs..the Great Swallowtail cats. Two of the 5 were on my little Rue.
They look so much like bird doo, wonder if birds think that...or do birds never look, I'm leaning towards the latter on that one.
Here's some of my Polydamus cats..they look like wood veneer.
They can eat! They are little fatties right now, I'm hoping they will pupate soon, my Pipevine isn't that big.
Here is a Question Mark cat that I found on my neighbor's Elm. I raised and released it in June this year.
This message was edited Aug 22, 2007 9:19 PM
He's pretty, how did you ever find it?
The tree hangs over my side of the fence and I noticed the leaves had been munched on. I actually found 3 that day, all made it!
Birds are always on that tree and I figured they would have been lunch if I didn't rescue them.
What a beauty! I never find them in the trees, they just blend in so well.
I love those Question Mark's. Wish I could find one around here.
I see webworms in the pecan trees all over. What kind of butterfly or moths do those make?
Haha, those are moths. I think there's different kinds of webworms, most become plain little moths. The Fall webworm becomes a little white moth, that's the only one I know.
Those webs are gross, seems like there are millions of those cats in them.
That reminds me, when I went out to get new cats off of the plants this afternoon, I saw where a mass of small black cats had eaten one of my Frostweed plants about 4 foot swoop, the leaves look like netting. I was going to take a picture but forgot after getting back in and putting the babies up. Hopefully it is something worth feeding on my frostweed.
Anyone know what they might become?
Oh, great thread fly_g! I've never seen a Saddleback in person but have read they have a nasty bite. Was it bad?
And those Polydamas cats are too cool! I gave up trying to get the pipevine germinated but plan on starting it early (like next month) and getting it going inside. I've never seen Poly's here but do have Pipevine's.
Knolan, I am so jealous! I can't believe how bright that cat is!
Sheila, I'm so proud of what a butterfly gardener you've become! :) What a great cat to just find! I had tons of ? this year but no idea where they came from. I decided a few years ago that I would not climb into trees looking for cats. lol
Ok, my contribution is my all time favorite cat....the Queen! I absolutely love them! They are slimmer than Monarch's and have the 3rd set of antennae. Some cats have a red base on their antennae, and some don't. Some have more blue than black. I tried to get my baby to pose pretty for the camera tonight but it really wanted to sleep on it's limp leaf. Don't worry, I'll get them fresh food in the morning!
...Oh Sheila, do try to get a pic! I sure hope they turn out to be Bordered Patch cats! I would love have them on my Frostweed, since I have a lot, because my giant native sunflower bit the dust early this year. (had lots of cats tho)
This message was edited Aug 22, 2007 10:10 PM
You know, a while back Frostweed posted a pic of some black cats and I think they were on Frostweed. They were Bordered Patch I think.
Oh Paige, let me tell you how bad that thing hurt....I thought it was a snake bite! I didn't see any puncture bites in my leg so then I thought it was a spider but there was no bite mark, just stung like crazy. So, I went back to work, I was cutting back some huge Gingers, and it happened on my other leg. By then I was pretty mad, so I looked all over the leaves, both sides and found him. They are pretty but don't touch them! I used tongs to give him new leaves each day!
Ceejaytown said the moth can sting too, so I'll have to be careful if he ever emerges.
I didn't think the Queens liked A. tuberosa, is that tuberosa?
Never seen a Queen cat but they are neat.
Awesome! That's immediately what I thought of when she said "mass" and "netting" and Frostweed is part of the Aster family. It's a much better host plant than the Zexmania because it's leaves are tiny!
Here's one of my Bordered Patches
Thank you for posting that, Koncrete! I had wondered how I could tell te difference between a Queen and a Monarch. Now I know, I had a couple of Queens! Cool.
That's my first sulphur. I love their color. I'll have to inspect the bush better for greens. These old eyes ain't as perky as they should be. As it is, I had to bend the branch WAAAAAY down to get that shot.
I felt so sorry for the web worms in the pecan trees. I don't think they were gross. What was gross is that I continuously see wasps get in their webs and just devour the littl guys. I feel so helpless. Spray the wasps, kill all the cats. Some of them do survive but it's just horrible to watch.
Yeah that would be hard to watch.
I remember, as a kid, seeing those webworms and their webs and they would always be falling on your head when you were playing and you would think it was a spider.
Paige, I've never seen a bordered Patch around either...I need to get some Frostweed, it's a pretty plant. That butterfly is very pretty!
K, you've had Queens and the cats!
I'm hoping I'll get some Sulphur cats on my Cassia, it's only about 3' high but they seem to grow fast. K, how tall is your Cassia? Did you just plant it this year?
Fly, I did plant it just this year but I cheated. Instead of planting from the seeds I have, I bought a plant at Buchanans back in April. That baby is over 10' high right now. Possibly higher, hard to tell from way down here. It just started blooming about 2 weeks ago. So pretty! I will say that I've seen tons of sulphurs that I've never had here before since I've had it in the yard. Great plant! I plan on digging it up before the first freeze and potting for next year. It's gonna need an awfully big pot!
More great pics guys. I remember as a kid just loving caterpillars. Thought they were so cool especially the "fuzzy" ones. Who knew I would grow up and start raising them in my house. LOL. Can't believe some people think these critters are gross or ugly. They are all so beautiful. And seriously flygirl. I looked through my pics last night and have none that are even discernible. Will keep trying. I have some on my cell phone that came out okay but not on my digital camera. I have got to get that thing working before the Monarchs show up. Keep the pics coming I love them.
Leslie
Well, since you insist.... but I'd already posted this in another topic.... here's my most recent batch of BSTs. I have over 60 of them in the cage.
8*D
And here is a picture of one of my Sulphurs...
Paige, I just found and brought in my first Queen last night!
I took time this morning to get a pic of the black babies on the Frostweed. What do you think they are? I do have Patches in my yard.
Need to get to work....later.
My camera kept fogging up, cold inside, hot outside!
This message was edited Aug 23, 2007 7:26 AM
Knolan, glad I could help!
Fly, I only have A. curassavica except for 2 tiny A. tuberosa's that have been struggling. Maybe they'll come back stronger next year. I'll look for some baby Frostweed to send to you or I can send seeds. Do you get Queens but just no cats? Funny that you don't have Bordered Patches. ? I don't see the same things tho that even Sheila in a neighboring town sees.
Leslie, we must teach people that they are caterpillars and not worms! That's their first step to seeing them in a different way and appreciating them more. Worms scare people but caterpillars don't. ? lol
Sheila, they are darker than my cats but you know how BST's vary in color so the Chlosyne might also. Here's a link to that thread of mine: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/673214/#post_2940453 Are you going to bring them inside?
Here is a Variegated Fritillary. They look almost identical to Gulf Frits but their antennae are longer and the GF has gray in it.
Keep trying Leslie, I know you'll find one soon!
Terrie, 60, wow! That's a lot of mouths to feed and a lot of work, shifting plants, cleaning frass...keep up the good work!
Sheila, those do look like BPs, Paige's link said they are variable when young.
Paige, that's a cool VF, I haven't seen one here. I have 2 passies and not a single frit egg or cat. I've seen some GFs passing thru but haven't seen any stop. I'd love some Frostweed seeds when you get them, thanks.
Hey y'all I need some help with an ID of this fellow. Moth is my guess. It either fell on me or crawled on me at Botanic Gardens when I was eating my lunch. The only tree above I could ID was a Hackberry and no plants, just trees.
I need to get some plant for it to feed on soon.
It looks like some kind of Tussock moth cat.
Off to look those up, thanks fly!
I don't know Sheila, I'm not finding a match, are you having any luck?
No, it definately was a Tussock of some sort. I took it out back and let it go, it took off!!! I released it near a Hackberry, pecan, morning glory, althea, elm & and other items. Hopefully it can find something to eat within the group. I don't think moths are real particular. If I could have found exactly what it was and what it fed on I would have cage raised it. Since I didn't I believe it would be better on it's own. Funny looking little feller though.
They're cute little cats, furry looking. Hopefully he'll find soemthing he likes.
Moths are hard to raise when you just find them on a "generic" plant. You just don't know what to feed them, so I usually just end up releasing them too. I've got a ton of Virginian Tiger Moth cats this year, on a variety of plants. I've always just called them yellow Wooly bears but I'm not sure that's an "official" name. They are so cute tho!
Sheila, it's a good thing you've learned about cats because most people would freak out with them falling on them. lol
Gotta love that strange looking saddleback cat!
Pretty cloudless sulphur cat too :o)
I'm partial to Pluto Sphinx moth cats...have raised several over the past couple of years...always look forward to seeing them during the fall season.
~ Cat
...and Tersa Sphinx moths cats too...love those eye spots and different colors.
~ Cat
...and the rare Ornythion Swallowtail cat which is easily mistaken for a Giant Swallowtail...both as a caterpillar and butterfly. Must always take a second, third and more often than not...fourth, fifth and sixth look at each cat and butterfly flitting around in south Texas.
~ Cat
Cat, those Tersa's look like cartoon characters!!! The Ornyth... is definately a copy cat look for the GST! You get such a variety down there, I am jealous!
Oh, I almost forgot, Debnes called me earlier and has an ID for the bunch of black cats in my previous post. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=3889657 She said they are Silver Checkerspots. So I can afford a little Frostweed plant to enjoy them flitting around!
Shiela,
Am not familiar with Silvery Checkerspots...we don't get them down here. Some of those crescents, patches and checkerspots look so much alike!!! My cat books are in the car and it's way past bedtime for me. Will try to remember to look at them tomorrow to compare.
You know this means you're going to have to keep us updated on their progress and share lots of photos. :o)
~ Cat
