I found this gnawing on some curly parsley I have growing. A few weeks ago I saw a small one of these and was told it was a fritillary cat. This one is about 2.5 inches long.
My first pic of a cat
Looks like a Black Swallowtail caterpillar - not sure exactly what species you have in Illinois though. Most likely Eastern Black Swallowtail.
~ Cat
We have THESE:
WTG gk! Can you put him in a cage of some sort ......the cardinals love to eat them! There's some great ideas in the 'Stickey' at the top of this forum :)
yah, do it, do it!!! I am just finishing raising mine. I had 9. all have emerged and left but one.
It's fun
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/876617/
gk...... You mentioned a Fritillary....
Here is a link that shows IL has a fair amount of Varigated Frits, click on the "more images". There is a picture of the caterpillar there. Or click on BugFiles and look at the Fritillary pics there. They don't look anything like the BST cat.
The butterfly picture, other thread, looks to be an Eastern Black Swallowtail (the picture doesn't show well). I got a good look at it before going to the house for the camera. The cat doesn't match the picture for an EBS. There is too much white on mine although the black and yellow looks right.
I haven't downloaded a second sighting I took yesterday. This one was on a butterfly weed 150 yards from the first. I doubt it crawled all the way there over a two day period.
Gary
This is the second cat I've got a picture of. It's on a Butterfly weed in my Pump flower bed. It looks like the first one but I don't think it is an Eastern Black Swallowtail because of the white markings.
I have yet to find fritillaries in bug files. A little help, please?
That's a monarch. congrats
http://www.monarchbutterflyusa.com/Cycle.htm
Caterpillars look different at various stages. Checkout this link on Black swallowtails.
http://www.glorious-butterfly.com/black-swallowtail-butterfly.html