Thanks to Roxanne for IDing this beauty! It is a White Tipped Black Moth (Melanchroia chephise). I added new "Snow on the Mountain" bushes to my Zen garden entrance and I just KNEW that this pretty little moth was hanging around it because it was it's host plant! I just love adding new plants to my yard.
See this website for more info about this lovely moth:
http://collier.ifas.ufl.edu/CommHort/CommHortPubs/Snowbush%20Caterpillar.pdf
Now ...
should I raise some cats from this moth?
Congrats Becky! We got those out here too. I say yes!!! Raise some cats!!!
I'd like to see the eggs, caterpillars and cocoons. Can guarantee you can also send the life cycles photo to our local NABA Chapter and Gil will post them in our section of life cycles. It's a new addition to our website and as folks photo doc life cycles of butterflies and moths he is adding them on. Do let me know if you raise some and photo doc them. You can then email Gil from our chapter site and I'll give him a heads up that you'll be sending photos.
Those moths always make me take a second look thinking it's a Red-Bordered Pixie butterfly or a new butterfly species! I get them on my hoya blossoms...several at a time. Cute dainty little buggers!!!
Do you get the Texas Wasp Moth (Horama panthalon texana) too? They are the cutest looking moths as well. Looks like they have little boots on - definately a Texas thang! ROLF!!!
This message was edited Apr 15, 2008 9:52 AM
Here's a Texas Wasp Moth up close. We get them by the hundreds when the Coma trees are blooming.
~ Cat
Wow! Those moths look like real wasps! Makes ya worry about destroying any wasps, doesn't it!?
I haven't seen the WTB moth lately, so I don't know if I will get cats on my Snow on the Mountain bushes, but I will let you know, Cat, if I do. I would definitely like to raise some just for the fun and novelty of it! :-)
Becky, I posted this pic on the Bug Forum, trying to find out what they were. Turned out to be the white-tipped Black Moth. They have completely defoliated my friends' Snowbushes and these in this pic are actually eating the bark. The caterpillars are everywhere and Snowbushes are probably dead. Major outbreak this year.
Gardenpom - Very Interesting!!! I've never seen their caterpillars but we do get a nice amount of those moths. Have no idea what larval host they use here. We don't have snowbushes.
Bummer about them defoliating your friend's snowbushes - am thinking the plants will recuperate??? Are you going to raise the caterpillars? I do hope you'll take in a few and photodoc their life cycle. Keep up posted please.
~ Cat
What I call Snowbushes are Beckys Snow on the Mountain. Neither is the real name of that plant. I was just warning they may meet the same fate. The caterpillars are very destructive and I do not want any in my yard. I did see a moth on a Sunflower the other day, but just resting. Yours are laying eggs, so you will have your fill of caterpillars.
This message was edited Jul 2, 2008 8:43 AM
This message was edited Jul 2, 2008 8:44 AM
Well ... this is a bummer ... I did find a whole bunch of these cats on the Snow on the Mountain bushes in my yard. I took lots of photos! And I have looked all over my computer and they are gone!!! I don't know if they got moved into an unknown folder or accidentally deleted. (sigh)
Well, most of them have emerged from their cocoon. Ironically, I didn't release some till much later in the day. When I went to release them, two had already started mating! Sheesh! Not even a day old as a moth! LOL! So that tells me that they probably are very much a pest for those plants. Mine are looking pretty chewed up. I may have to take drastic measures and spray the bushes with some kind of insecticide soap. I hate to do that, but there are just WAY TOO MANY of these caterpillars. I have to agree with gardenpom! These are young bushes that I want to grow big, but at this rate the cats are gonna kill them. I thought I'd never say I was gonna exterminate cats, but these might just have to go. Maybe I will just throw them over the fence and let them fend for themselves. Maybe they will find another host plant ... though I doubt it. Hmmmm ...
