This little lady flew past me and went straight to this leave and immediately started laying eggs. I watched her for a good 20 minutes laying the eggs. I only got shots of her closed up and some are blurry but hope someone can help. She did lay all of her egg on top of each other in one stack. I will try several picture since they are not very good. Help always appreciated.
Leslie
Another pic
Another pic of the lady
What's the plant?
Last pic of the lady
Now for the eggs.
Good question Mrs. Ed. My brother-in-law says it is an elm tree. He is pretty certain but I am not. We have several of these small trees around the back yard. I looked up the kind of BF's found on elms and that did not help me identify. Sorry I could not be more certain but it is a tree and not a bush or plant.
Leslie
Well I'll let the Texas experts handle this one. But I'd say hackberry emperor. *shrug*
that does not look like any elm we have up here that I know of.
Thanks Mrs. Ed. I thought about hackberry also but it never has any"fruit" on it. I probably don't know what ahackberry is either. I will look up the BF you mentioned and thanks a bunch.
Leslie
Actually don't think that's what it is, but a hackberry leaf can look elm-ish. I don't really see the hackberry emperor spots on yours. The Texas gals will know soon!!
I hope I get someone who knows because I am always wondering whether to bring them in and raise them or not. However, it looks like she laid about 50 to 60 eggs and I am not too sure I can handle that load. However, at least I will be able to look for cats in a few days and see what they look like.
Thanks again.
Leslie
Can't quite tell by the fuzzy photos. I tried rubbing my eyes but that didn't help :o) Looks to be a Hackberry Emperor or Tawny Emperor. They lay eggs in clusters and use Hackberry trees as a larval host. The caterpillars will be green and develop a set of "little horns" on their head they become 2nd instars.
Will post a caterpillar photo when I get home tonight.
~ Cat
I ran it through a super sharp filter and some spots came out.
Sorry about the blurry pics Cat. That is why I rarely post any pics on here, my camera is not that good. But seems the consensus may be hackberry emperor. I will certainly try to describe it a little better when the eggs hatch if I cannot get a good pic.
And thanks Mrs. Ed for trying to get my pics clearer. I really appreciate that. I wish I could have gotten a shot with the lady opened up but she was too fast.
Thanks to both of you for trying to help. I really appreciate it.
Leslie
Leslie,
Don't mind me...keep posting photos...we'll do the best we can to help you ID butterflies and caterpillars. Practice makes perfect...and gives you a much more enjoyable reason to go outside and photograph butterflies :o)
Are you going to raise them? The caterpillars are cuties!!!
This is a ventral view of a Hackberry Emperor. Were you able to see a "broken" or "hacked" (which makes it easy to remember and ID as a "hack-berry") chocolate colored bar on the forewings near the base?
~ Cat
This is a ventral view of a Tawny Emperor...you can see two complete chocolate brown bars on the forewing near the base front margin. There are no eyespots on the underside of the forewings.
~ Cat
This message was edited Oct 2, 2008 8:08 AM
..and this is a ventral view of an Empress Leilia. The same solid chocolate brown bars on the forewing base front margin but it has big eye spots on the forewings and hindwings.
Am thinking you'll remember what you saw and can compare it to the photos of the Hackberry, Tawny and Empress Leilia I've posted and verify the identification of your garden guest.
~ Cat
Well I say since you have the plant and the eggs you should raise them!
Here's a pic of the trunk of a hackberry. Does yours have the corky things on the main trunk?
Great pics Cat. I am going to go with the Tawny Emperor. I think that is what it is according to your pics. I have also been looking it up on other sites and believe that is what she was. Now are her cats cute and fun to raise? What I read was they curl up in dead leaves to chrysalid.
And Linda I don't know about the tree. Trunk is actually pretty small as I have a bunch of small trees and no real big ones. I am thinking maybe elm because of the leaves and a picture I saw on another site. I know I sound more confused than ever but I am sticking with the tawny emperor and when I see the little cats I will know for sure.
And thanks to you Cat for saying what you did as I am sure I will be posting blurry cat pictures soon. LOL.
Leslie
no no no!!! you have a macro, you will be posting crystal clear beautiful pictures! you can do it!!
Those 3 that Cat posted pics of only use hackberry trees. Here's a site that has a pic of the cat for the Tawny Emperor caterpillar.
http://www.dallasbutterflies.com/Butterflies/html/clyton.html
And below a pic of my hackberry leaves. Leaves are rough-feeling.
Oh and here's a caterpillar photo...I can't remember if this is a Tawny or Hackberry cat - but I think it's a Hackberry caterpillar. Aren't the little horns so cute?!
That's also a good photo of the Tawny larvae on Dale Clark's website.
Either way, this cat kept crawling round and round this fence post. I watched it circle the top of the post over and over again :o) I finally took pity on it and put in on a nearby hackberry tree.
Yes, they make leaf nests when they pupate but they still crawl around to eat and look for new leaves.
~ Cat
ps...the Emperors out here use Sugar Hackberry (Celtis laevigata) as a larval host tree.
This message was edited Oct 2, 2008 3:49 PM
