Hi everyone! Ever since I figured out what bay trees look like, I've been scouring the forest for caterpillars. Which led me to the question of how to tell a Palamedes cat from a Spicebush cat?
When they're small, the difference is that Palamedes have all white booties whereas the Spicebush has a brown patch on the rear.
Here's a Spicebush baby...
But the problem I had was once they reached the final instar. I looked on the internet and there were lots of really minute differences listed. However, they all seemed to overlook what seemed like a big difference to me. Let's look!
Here's a Spicebush. As you can see, he has big eyespots in front. Then, behind those there is a second set of spots with a smaller white dot inside it.
Here is the Spicebush getting ready to pupate.
Now, here's a Palamedes. Notice it still has the big eyespots, but the smaller ones behind those are much smaller than in the Spicebush.
Here's another Palamedes. Notice the secondary eye spots are shaped more like triangles or trapezoids than the round ones seen on the Spicebush.
Here's the Palamedes from another angle. Isn't his head huge?!
And here's the Palamedes getting ready to pupate.
I'm fortunate that in the last few weeks I found a Spicebush and a Palamedes in the same place where I like to hike. It's helped to compare them side by side. Here's some more photos. This one is the Palamedes. The dark spot on his back is where he was wounded.
Palamedes from the side...
Now, here's the Spicebush cat. See the larger, second set of eyespots?
And here's the Spicebush from the side.
Just for fun, here's some of the adult butterflies. Here are two Spicebush STs making love in the oak tree by my house. My neighbor was out power walking and had to ask what I was taking pictures of. It was fun telling her, "butterfly sex"!
Spicebush enjoying pentas. Mom really likes the Spicebush butterflies, but then again, she likes most of the butterflies.
And here's a Palamedes visiting my house last month. I tend to see them first thing in the spring, and then not so many until the fall. Because they live in the swamp, one of their preferred nectar plants is pickerelweed, which Cat learned about when she visited Georgia!
Here's me sneaking up on a Palamedes that was basking in the backyard.
Key identifiers for the Palamedes are the stripe that runs parallel to the body. Also, their body is striped as opposed to the dotted appearance of other swallowtails.
Hope you liked my tutorial! Now that I know where these guys live, I can't wait to gather them up this spring!
Melanie
I have little yellow bugs on my milk weed what are these and how do i get rid of them?
Those would be milkweed aphids. You can blast them off with a strong spray from the hose. You can also spray the milkweed with soapy water, but make sure you don't have any caterpillars on there first!
Another thing I meant to add is that it is also important to know caterpillar behavior. Spicebush cats will build little shelters by rolling leaves up around themselves. However, Palamedes cats will sit on top of the leaf and do not build shelters. So sometimes you can tell by how they act.
Melanie
