What is this on my Washington naval orange? Thanks!
ID please
I'm hoping that the first pic is of an egg and that this is a cat. Thanks again!
You are right on both counts and I'd say you have a Giant Swallowtail. Congrats! The caterpillar disguises itself as bird poo when it's little. They eat anything in the citrus family so we folks down here in Florida see them quite a bit.
Melanie
Thanks, Melanie! That's so exciting; this is the first year out of the 2 or 3 that I've had citrus that one of them has been used as a host plant! There are several more eggs and one or two more cats.
I always enjoy reading your comments on this forum! Thanks for helping me.
Lucy
Yeppers, a Giant Swallowtail it is. Congrats!!! They use my tangerine, navel orange, grapefruit, lemon and mexican lime tree out here. Oh and they also use native baretta and colima and once in a blue moon rue (ruta graveolens).
~ Cat
Lucy,
You're most welcome! I've planted a Hercules Club for the Giant ST but it's still very small. For some reason they don't like Mom's Meyer Lemon tree. Maybe it's too close to the house and in a shadier spot than they prefer. In the flight cage at the museum we keep host plants in there as well as nectar plants so we can keep the whole cycle going. We have a tangerine tree in there and it's just been covered in eggs and caterpillars lately. It makes a good demonstration plant when guests ask about the life cycle. People are always astonished at how small the eggs and cats are.
Melanie