Butterfly pees, turns, and drinks its pee ....

Question:
OK, here's one you may never have heard before, and my husband and I are very curious about it.


While rocking on the porch a butterfly landed on a paper I was holding. Several times it released from its butt a golden orb of liquid (urine?) then sucked it up with its proboscis. When i finally had enough of that it flew to my husband's hand and proceeded to do the same thing? What in the world was that about?

Hope you can help.

 
Answer:
You’re right, I’ve not been asked this one! I’ll send it on to some lepidopterists that I know and see what they say.


I do know that a butterfly will pee on carrion and fruit/food that hasn’t liquefied enough for it to eat. The pee dissolves the meat/fruit/whatever a bit so they can drink it back up. I’ve never seen it and found your experience fascinating! Were you sweating out in the heat? Could the sweat have dried too much and the butterfly decided to pee to dissolve the salt from sweat to drink it? Butterflies (males) love sweat.

I’ll contact you if I find out more. How fascinating!

Here is a photo of a Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly peeing.

Response:
This is Ron ( the husband in question). It was a hot day; I was not sweating noticeably but obviously on a day such as that I had been producing insensible perspiration all afternoon. Dried salt on my skin is pretty much a certainty (invisible but certain). I believe that you have a good explanation here. Why it was doing that on the paper is a mystery in its own right; possibly some salt or salt analogue is used in processing or sizing it? White paper, in case you wondered.

Answer:
Several chemicals are used in making paper, including clays and bleach.  Dried bleach becomes salt.  I don't know if the paper you were holding contained any salt, of course.  I'm waiting for a reply from someone who may have a more complete answer.  Watch here for the update.  You have me quite curious ...

My small caterpillar sometimes hangs from a thin string. Is there something wrong with it?

Question:
My small caterpillar sometimes hangs from a thin string. Is there something wrong with it?

Answer:
No, it is fine! 

Caterpillars will drop by a strand of silk for several reasons including:


• They were disturbed by something and simply drop to get away from perceived danger

• They want to move lower

• They lose their grip accidentally



They’ll climb back up the string to the leaf.

Gulf Fritillary caterpillars, chrysalides, and emerging adults ...

Question:
I had a bunch of gulf fritillary caterpillars eating the leaves (of passionvine). I watched a couple get real big. I have yet to see any chrysalis around. I have a big frog and a million lizards so they may be eating them. However, I do have one adult Gulf Frittilary which buzzes around for a few minutes in the late afternoon. I never seen it land on anything though I have about 6 mature pentas and about 8'x3' (x 2' high) of lantanas. All the plants are very healthy and were purchased locally at a mom and pop nursery who also have millions of adult butterflies and caterpillars. They control the caterpillars by picking them off and therefore use no chemicals or BT.


My questions is: Do the Gulf Frittilaries LOVE a certain plant because the loner I have here seems to pass it up like an Eskimo passing up a store which sells ice.

A second concern is that I have had over 24 large "healthy" monarch caterpillars on my milkweeds at a time (and a lot more smaller ones still growing). Most have seemed to have vanished. About 5 or so reached chrysalis. Of those, none have made it to adulthood. One just came out this am and when I checked on it around 2pm it was flopping around on the ground like its wings were not fully mature. Its 615pm and its about dead. Another one made it out but was found inside the BBQ storage cabinet under the grill dried up. A third one never made it out and had maggots.

My question: Is this normal?

Answer:
Many times Gulfs do stay near the vine when they pupate, but often they wander over 100 feet from the vine to pupate, often in hidden areas. Of course wasps (#1 enemy), frogs, lizards, birds, and other predators take a toll on butterfly numbers. http://www.butterflyfunfacts.com/caterpillarpredators.php


Males tend to hang around the plant but really don’t do much. They’re looking for females. Their instinct leads them to passionvine. Females tend to lay eggs next to the plant on anything (including people) including the plant itself. Many (if not most) Gulf Fritillary eggs are laid off the plant. 

Flopping around usually means that either it ate leaves late in caterpillar life that had insecticide with a colon esterase inhibitor or a spider, ants, or other such critter got it. It’s sad to see. Sometimes a deformed pupa or a disease such as OE (Ophryocystis electroskirrha) can cause deformed wings where the butterfly can’t fly. 

Maggots are very normal.  They cat the inside of the chrysalis - the developing butterfly. The maggots are normally chalcid wasps (although there are other critters like tachind flies that do the same thing). The little wasp lays eggs in a soft chrysalis. It’s all over in nature. http://www.butterflyfunfacts.com/chalcid.php

The good news is that all the above nasty things that happen to butterflies is the reason we still have butterflies in the world! http://www.butterflyfunfacts.com/butterfly-enemies.php

Our little critters have so much against them ..

Butterflies without nectar for days - what happens?

Q:  Are butterflies able to go days without nectar while it is raining for days on end with Alex stalled in the Gulf?

A.  Butterflies roost in the rain. Roosting is simply butterflies sitting with wings folded over their backs.  If water is within reach, as it would be in the rain, they can simply uncurl their proboscis and drink water.  It's not unusual for a butterfly to occasionally drink rainwater instead of nectar. 

If temperatures are cool, butterflies can live for quite a while without any water whatsoever. 

There are weeks in Florida where rain falls for a week, off and on.  It's so wet that butterflies won't fly for the entire week.  As soon as the sun is out and butterflies wings are dry, they'll fly to drink nectar.

Where would you suggest I start my butterfly education?

Comment:
Hello Edith,
We live in Southeastern Pa and have a couple of acres of mostly large oak trees and a fair amount of tranquility. I would like my granddaughters to have the joy of learning about butterflys and their development. Where would you suggest I start my education. Which tools will be most usefull.

Answer: 
The first thing is to learn which butterflies are in your area.  This link will answer that question for you.   http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/map?ds=39&_dcs=1 Local libraries may have books that focus on butterflies in PA.

Next, plant a garden with plants butterflies need: BOTH host and nectar plants. They need nectar plants (although there are quite a few in nature that we call 'weeds'). But most important are host plants - the plants that the caterpillars eat. Each species is very specific about which plant the caterpillars eat. The mom butterfly lays eggs on those plants only. If you plant the plants, the butterflies will come. Absolutely.

Once you have the plants planted, remember that they are insects. Insecticides will kill them! A plant with holes in the leaf may mean that a caterpillar is eating and growing into a butterfly.

You'll have fun!

Preserving Butterfly and Moth Caterpillars

"I am working with a 4-H Entomology group and wondered about the current best method for preserving butterfly or moth caterpillers to exhibit in a collection. Do you know anything about that?"

A researcher wrote recently about some unusual caterpillars I was raising.  When I have extras, I will send him some for his studies and records.  He wrote, "Drop the larva into water just poured from a boiling kettle into a petri dish (jar lid). It will clench then relax elongated dead and fixed. Don’t let it sit in the water but put it into a screw cap vial of rubbing alcohol.”

I haven't tried it yet but he uses this method when he has reason to preserve a caterpillar.

Dark Form American Snout Caterpillar

Aphids and Milkweed

>>>>Please Help,  My milkweed is infested with aphids and there is caterpillars on the plant. What do I do? I have a 2500 square foot butterfly garden and the aphids are only on the milkweed.  I need to feed monarchs that are in my 4 foot square butterfly cage also.<<<<

Aphids are a nightmare! When they first start and you don't think they can do much damage but they can destroy the growing tips of milkweed and oleander plants.  The milkweed/oleander aphid is not native to the US and give live birth - without mating.  From what we understand, there are ZERO males of this species in the wild in the US.

It is said that when aphids are not available, however, that some aphid predators will eat Monarch and Queen young caterpillars.

There are many natural predators but of course they don't keep them under total control.  Green lacewings, hover flies, and lady bug nymphs are only a few of their natural predators. 

Insecticidal soap or Malathion can kill aphids.  We highly recommend removing caterpillars from the plants before treating the plants.  Cover the plants with a sheet for 1/2 hour, remove the sheet, and rinse thoroughly.  After a thorough rinse, the caterpillars can be safely returned to the plants. 

~Edith

Cassius and Ceraunus Blue Butterfly Eggs and Caterpillars; How to Find Them in Your Yard

Continuing to answer the question about finding eggs and caterpillars in one's yard, we move to Cassius Blue and Ceraunus Blue butterflies. Both are beautiful little butterflies. The males are brilliant blue on the inside of their wings. The females have less blue.

Ceraunus Blue butterfly, first photo. Cassius Blue butterfly, second photo.

Marc and Maria Minno, in their book Florida Butterfly Gardening, share a tip to find these caterpillars. Simply gather flower buds of their host plants, place the buds in a plastic container, and check for frass (caterpillar excrement) the next day. If there is frass, there is a caterpillar!

Eggs of the Ceraunus Blue butterfly are pale blue and will be found on Hairy Indigo and other Indigofera sp plants. Eggs of the Cassius Blue butterfly are cream/white and will be found on the flower buds of Leadwort (Plumbago sp) plants.

The green caterpillar blends in with the flower buds so well that it is nearly impossible to see these tiny caterpillars. Fully grown and ready to pupate, they may be as large as one inch long. An intense study of the flower buds can still fail to reveal the caterpillar.


Once flower buds of the host plant are placed into a plastic container, wait one day. If frass is evident the next day, you know a caterpillar is also in the container.

The paper towel was added to absorb moisture from the flower buds.

Happy Hunting!

Find Viceroy and Red-Spotted Purple Butterfly Eggs and Caterpillars

"How can I find butterfly eggs and caterpillars in my yard?"



Wow! What a wonderful question. The answer can take days to write so we'll take them one or two species at a time.

Viceroy and Red-Spotted Purple butterflies can be attracted to your yard with fruit. They will feed on flower nectar and decaying fruit. A bird suet feeder, an apple, a fruit tree; nearly any type of fruit is acceptable to these beautiful winged creatures.

Viceroy butterflies lay eggs on willow leaves. Red-Spotted Purple butterflies lay eggs on willow or black cherry leaves.

The female butterfly of these two species lands on a leaf, turns around, and backs down until her abdomen touches a point of the leaf. The point is normally the tip of the leaf. If a leaf has been torn, the point could be another tip of the leaf, on the side of the leaf. When searching for eggs, look on the tips of the leaves as well as jagged edges. Almost all eggs will be found on the tip of the leaf.

The egg is green. Through a microscope, the egg resembles a sand spur. It has points all over the outside of the egg.


A young caterpillar will start eating the tip of the leaf. It will take its frass (excrement) and add a small bit to the tip of the leaf vein. When not eating, the caterpillar will rest on the extended leaf vein (excrement) and as it grows, it rests on the leaf vein.

As the caterpillar continues to grow (multiplying its hatchling weight by 2,500) it grows too large to rest upon a leaf vein. It begins to eat so much, it will eat several leaves per day. At this point it will rest on the twig of the tree. A larger caterpillar may be brown or green. It blends in well with the tree itself and is difficult to spot until one develops an 'eye' for caterpillars.

In the fall, before the leaves drop, a Viceroy or Red-Spotted Purple caterpillar that is approximately 3/4" long will eat a little over half a leaf. It will then sew the leaf to the twig with silk from its spinnerets (located under its mouth). It will next lay a thick layer of silk from side to side of the leaf, starting with the petiole, where the leaf 'stem' joins the leaf itself. As the silk dries, it contracts and draws the edges of the leaf together to form a tube that is open at one end. The caterpillar will crawl into this tube when days become very short (and nights become long). By this time, fall has arrived and leaves have started falling off the trees. The tube, called a hibernaculum, will not fall from the twig simply because the caterpillar literally sewed it to the twig.
It survives freezing temperatures for days at this point because it has gone into diapause. Sorbitol and glycerol are in the caterpillars blood, preventing it from freezing, like anti-freeze. When the days become longer (and nights shorter) fresh leaves will grow on the tree. The caterpillar will crawl backward out of the hibernaculum to eat these fresh leaves. It will return to the hibernaculum when resting until it grows too large for the tiny leaf tube.

So ....
~ Eggs; look on the tips of leaves, first checking younger leaves before looking at older leaves.
~ Caterpillars spring and summer and early fall; look on the tips of leaves for a young hatchling caterpillar and on the leaf vein for caterpillars a little older. Look on twigs for larger caterpillars.
~ Caterpillars in late fall and winter; look for hibernaculums on bare twigs. If a hibernaculum is found, a small ribbon can be tied 12 - 24 inches from the hibernaculum. In the spring, when fresh leaves are growing, the area around the hibernaculum should be checked almost daily for a young caterpillar. If a hibernaculum with a caterpillar is taken indoors in the winter, the caterpillar can become dehydrated from the dry indoor air and/or the longer periods of light indoors may cause it to come out of diapause. Without fresh leaves to eat, it will starve.

Happy hunting for Viceroy and Red-spotted Purple butterfly eggs and caterpillars!
(Watch for a post soon detailing how to tell the difference between Viceroy and Red-Spotted Purple caterpillars. Hint; it's the spikes on the humps!)

Caterpillar Instars

"I hear the term 'instar' often when people talk about Monarch caterpillars. What does this term mean, 'first instar' or 'second instar'?"

A caterpillars' skin doesn't grow. When the caterpillar grows too large for its skin, it must crawl out of its old skin (actually a cuticle, not a living skin)to continue to grow. Underneath its old skin is a loose baggier new skin that will stretch only to a certain point before the caterpillar must crawl out of it.

Looking at the photo with a large caterpillar and a tiny one on the right, it is very evident that the tiny caterpillar on the right could never grow to become the larger caterpillar if its skin didn't grow OR if it didn't crawl out of its old skin and have a larger skin underneath. The smaller caterpillar is first instar. The larger caterpillar is fifth instar, about to become a chrysalis.

Caterpillars crawl out of thier skin four times. This process is called 'molt'.

The time period between molts is called an 'instar'. Because Monarch caterpillars molt four times, they have five instars.

1st instar; hatched out of its egg
2nd instar; after the first molt
3rd instar; after the second molt
4th instar; after the third molt
5th instar; after the fourth molt and before becoming a chrysalis.

The last time it sheds its skin is when it pupates into a chrysalis.

The instar of a Monarch caterpillar is measured by its head capsule, not the size of the caterpillar. If a caterpillar doesn't eat much, it will be smaller during an instar.

Tiny caterpillars, hanging by an invisible string ...

"I have a milkweed plant in my garden, and im sure that there arent any pesticides on it or anything. A monarch comes and lays her eggs on the leaves, and i check on them and they look fine. The caterpillars hatch, but they look tinier than i think they're suppose to be. Then a couple of hours later, i look and the baby caterpillar is hanging from an invisible string, and its either dead, or will be in the morning. I'm not sure if its because of wasps, i know there are some lingering around the plant, but i really need some help. How can I save the eggs from the wasps? I cant afford a $30 sock/net thing to put around the plant. PLEASE help! Thank you very much. I would appreciate your suggestions. I am very concerned about the poor little caterpillars."

It's wonderful to hear from someone else who is so concerned about caterpillars. That concern is what turned me into a butterfly farmer. Welcome to the world of worrying about nearly invisible caterpillars and monsterous predators.

On the dime above, two Monarch eggs rest and one hatchling Monarch caterpillar crawls around. If you take a dime out of your pocket and look at it, you can realize how tiny the hatchling really is!

BUT ... a hatchling caterpillar is so tiny it is nearly invisible. I has to be small to fit inside the egg. It eats its way out and doubles in size nearly every day. In fourteen warm summer days, it gains weight over 2,500 times its original hatchling weight. At first, though, it is tiny.

The invisible thread is webbing from its spinnerets. The spinnerets are located under its head, where we have a neck. It lays a line of silk when it travels. When the plant is bumped or a predator comes by, it can drop from the leaf and suspend by its silk thread. It will slowly crawl back up the thread, an amazing sight to watch.


Wasps will kill caterpillars and eat them or carry them away. The only ways to protect them is to enclose the plant in a fine net (like sheet curtain material) or move the caterpillars and some leaves indoors. If you move them indoors, you need to either give them a safe milkweed plant to eat (like you are growing) or add leaves to the container every day. Sleeves can be expensive so simply make one with glue and a piece of fine material. Slide it over the plant or a branch with the caterpillars inside and tie it tightly shut on both ends. When the caterpillar(s) eat the leaves, move the net and caterpillars to another branch or plant.

Nature only allows one or two eggs laid to become adult butterflies. We should expect to lose caterpillars in our gardens. We should expect to see wasps, spiders, lizards, praying mantis, and other predators to carry away our caterpillars. But it is not something that many of us can accept. So we fight it!

Didn't become a full chrysalis; what happened?

"I'm raising Monarch caterpillars inside, and the last two times the caterpillars formed a J and went to shed their last skin, the skin did not fully come off, and the chrysalis did not fully emerge, only the very bottom of it, and they both died before the skin fully came off. Only the very tip of the green chrysalis could be seen, with the dead caterpillar was dangling there with most of his skin on."

I assume your caterpillar/pupa looked somewhat like the first photo. Several things can cause this. According to Dr. Urqhart, a silk strand caught around the J'ing caterpillar can cause it. Sometimes it is simply too weak or it may have other problems. This is common. It is heartbreaking, but it happens a lot.



"Underneath one of them was a little puddle of green fluid, and the other one's abdomen seemed very squishy and liquidy, like there wasn't a chrysalis to come out, only liquid there."

Look at the second photo. The green fluid is blood. Another caterpillar crawled on this one and tore the skin slightly before it pupated. When it was pupating, it pupated at the tear which resulted in a deformed pupa.

It IS squishy. This is normal! When it first pupates, it is basically gel with a cuticle. This gel is already preformed in some ways - you can see the antennae, legs, proboscis, wings, and more. Note the photo with these parts labeled. After an hour, it will have slowly reshaped into the classic Monarch chrysalis shape.



"I had touched both of them one time to get them back into the cage because they wandered off, but just by letting them crawl on a piece of paper and putting them in there. What do you think happened?"

It is safe to touch caterpillars if YOU ARE GENTLE. If one has started laying a silk mat, it should be left alone. If one leaves the plant in a rearing container and has not escaped the container, it should be left alone. They leave to molt (and should be left alone) and they leave the plant to pupate (and should be left alone). They can find their way back as long as they are inside the container with the plant.

"I'm very upset and I've been doing everything I can to keep these caterpillars healthy!!! Any suggestions you have would be really appreciated."

First, realize that butterflies have a rough time in nature. Most likely the problem is NOT your fault.

Nature is deadly. Only 1 or 2 out of 100 eggs will become an adult butterfly. Disease is a serious issue in nature. Between predators, parasitoids, disease, windshields, weather, and more ... very few become adult butterflies.

Because of the prevalence of disease in nature, ALWAYS disinfect a rearing container between batches of caterpillars. If your last batch of caterpillars did fine, still disinfect the containers and everything else that you touch or touches caterpillars. It is safest.

Enjoy and please let us know if we can do anything to help you.

Proper Environment for Butterflies on a Deck or Enclosure

"Can I some how adopt butterflies and you would be able to give me the proper living environment as well as ingredients that will fill them properly? Deck(from the sides)."

First, remember that their average life as an adult is only two weeks. Don't expect them to live for a long time.

Adult butterflies need several things:

Light; if the light is too bright on one side of the screened deck, they will fly to that side and sit, not feeding or flying. Light should be equal from more than one side or that side should have shade added. Without adequate light, they will just sit and roost - doing nothing. If they sit all day, they need more light.

Warmth; butterflies are cold blooded and need temperatures in the upper sixties to the eighties to fly. Too hot and they'll simply sit. Too cold and they'll simply sit. Too extremely hot or cold and they may die.

Food; flower nectar is excellent. If enough flowers cannot be maintained on the deck, add fruit and/or sugar water or Gatorade. If the butterflies do not eat themselves, it may be necessary to start them eating by handfeeding them.

Humidity; dry air kills butterflies. A humidifier, fogger, or little fountain adds moisture to the air.

NO pesticides; butterflies are insects and pesticides kill them.

Predators; ants, roaches, spiders, and other predators ride in flower pots and on plants and will be delighted with the meal you provide. Monitor carefully for predators.

Enjoy!

Wriggling Butterfly Chrysalids

"Our Painted Lady caterpillars made chrysalises yesterday. Today one of them was wiggling like crazy for a little more than a minute. Could you tell us why?"

Many butterfly and moth chrysalises (pupae) wriggle in response to touch or movement. It is assumed that this is a natural instinctive response that discourages predators and parasitoids.

Some butterfly chrysalises do not have a jointed abdominal segment. Monarch and Queen chrysalises are not jointed and cannot move. Species that are jointed often move.

Click here to see Painted Lady chrysalises wiggle, hundreds of them! Other butterfly species like Julia, Gulf Fritillary, Tawny Emperor, Hackberry Emperor, American Lady, and especially Red Admiral chrysalises are extremely active when touched by anything. A Red Admiral chrysalis that has been laid on a table will often wiggle for minutes, often working itself off the table and falling to the floor.

People often think that this wiggling is a sign that that the adult butterfly is about to emerge. This is is an understandable misconception.

If you are in an area of the world where you can raise Julia butterflies, listen to their chrysalises when they move. They squeak!

What Instar is a Monarch Caterpillar In?

"I was looking for information on what monarch "instar" stages are? How you tell what stage they are in etc.?"

When a caterpillar outgrows its skin, it crawls out of it, called molting. An 'instar' is the time period between molts. Caterpillar age is usually referred to as 'instars' while people age is referred to in 'years'.

The instar of a caterpillar is determined by measuring the head capsule. The head capsule is on the 'face' of the caterpillar and it never grows. When a caterpillar molts, it removes the old head capsule and has a new larger one in place of it.

1st instar – 0.6mm; 2nd instar – 0.8mm; 3rd instar – 0.9mm (some sources state 1.5mm); 4th instar – 2.2mm; 5th instar – 3.5mm

Newsletter Subscription and 100th Subscriber Gift

>>>Re: every 100th subscriber AND the person who recommends Butterflies! to that subscriber receives a gift from Shady Oak Butterfly Farm.<<<

"How do you know when a person recommends someone to your newsletter? There is no link in the newsletter for us to recommend someone."

Each time we email the 100th subscriber to ask who recommended that they subscribe to the newsletter. We then ship a gift to both the subscriber and the person who recommended the newsletter.

I'll include a link in the next newsletter. It's something I hadn't thought about, I'm sorry. A page about the newsletter with a link to subscribe is located here.

OE in Monarch Caterpillars

"I live just outside of Orlando and have been a butterfly garden enthusiast for a few years. This year I have collecting cats from my and a relatives butterfly gardens' milkweed plants and raising them in butterfly pavilions. I feed them milkweed from my yard and that I purchase from a local nursery. I have had some issues with OE and need some advise. My wish is to contribute to the Monarch conservation movement and want to make sure I have proper information. Is there any way to tell if a cat I collect has OE? I've read info about testing adult butterflies and of the bleach solution for eggs but little about the cats themselves which is usually when I get them. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated."

There isn’t a way to tell definitely if a cat has OE or not without killing it and checking it through a high powered microscope. Some people report that OE in cats will cause splotching but we found that other things also cause the same type of splotching. We did isolation tests with spotted/splotched larvae. This was during a time of feeding larvae milkweed infected with plant pests like thrips. The Monarchs with spots and splotches emerged without OE. Out of the thousands we raised each week, none had OE.

(OE is the abbreviation for Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, a protozoa disease that affects Monarch, Queen, and Soldier butterflies and other butterflies in the Danaus family. OE is MUCH easier to say than Ophyrocystis elektroscirrha!)

It is the cats that contract the disease – the cat has to eat spores to become infected. One cat can’t give it to another cat – the spores are only transferable from adult butterflies to another butterfly or object – as surface contamination. When a cat EATS the spore, it contracts OE. A pupa or adult cannot contract the disease although an adult can become surface contaminated by mating with an infected adult butterfly. Somewhat like touching a door handle after someone with cold pathogens on their hands touch it – the pathogens can contaminate surfaces such as bodies and plant leaves. Spores fall off like pixie dust when infected adult butterflies fly.

You can tell, sometimes, if a pupa is heavily infected. It does show splotching that I’ve not seen otherwise. Any I’ve had with these splotches (pupae) were OE infected.

The photo above is OE infected. Notice the splotching?

The photo below is of pupae that are not infected. Notice the smoother green color near the cremaster area?


Of course, a light infection won’t show so it always pays to check adults to be sure.

On the encouraging side, it is reported that in the southern tip of Florida, 85% of all Monarchs are reported to be OE infected. If it was as deadly in the wild as we are often led to believe, the population in southern Florida should be extinct by now. BUT it is deadly in nature … we’ve seen milkweed gardens in Florida that were full of dead pupae – from OE. We know it is deadly and in a rearing operation where Monarch butterflies are kept together and bred together, infection can build up if it is not eliminated. That’s why it’s so important for those who raise Monarchs and Queens and mate captive breeding stock to check for OE and to disinfect eggs. We don’t raise them like nature with a 98% death rate BEFORE they become adults – we raise them to have a high survival ratio!

I imagine you already do this but just in case, remember to always disinfect a pavilion after one set of cats are raised in it. OE is only one disease and is one of the least dangerous dangerous. Some other diseases are far worse than OE and they can be transferred from cat to cat.

You can wash milkweed with a light bleach solution and rinse thoroughly before putting cats on it. That will help with surface contamination of milkweed leaves – one of the primary sources of infection. The other source is spores on the eggs themselves. When the cat eats its way out of the egg, it eats spores that the adult female Monarch butterfly left on the egg surface when she laid the egg.

The same goes for Queens too. Queen cats are so cool – one of my very favorite larvae.

Orange-barred Sulphur caterpillar

"After visiting your farm last summer, we came home and planted a cassia tree in our back yard. About 2 weeks ago we noticed some very small catapillars, green, long and slim. We brought them in and now two weeks later they are over two inches long. They have been feeding on cassia leaves all this time. Using the internet and books we have identified them as the larva of the Orange-barred sulphur.
Do you agree??"

Absolutely! It makes a huge yellow butterfly with orange spots on the topside of its wings.

Also using cassia plants are Cloudless Sulphur and Sleepy Orange caterpillars.

Luna Moth

"I am from Minnesota and look what showed up at one of our bonfires a few weeks ago. I did a search for green moth with eyes on wings and I got you. How about that, I love the web! Can you tell me some things about this moth. I would like to share it with all the people that saw it that night."




It is a Luna moth and a beauty, isn’t it?

It never eats as an adult – it has NO mouth parts. It hatches and eats one of several plants. I use Sweet Gum to feed the caterpillars. They can’t hurt you. They make a cocoon and pupate into a pupa inside the cocoon. They then emerge as adults with no mouthparts, pair and then die in about one week.

They are one of the most recognized moths – used in the Lunesta commercials.

Although silk moth cocoons are used to make silk thread, Luna moth cocoon silk is too fine for use for that purpose.

Snout caterpillar on hackberry tree

"I LOOKED AT PICTURES OF THE EMPEROR CATERPILLER AND THE ONE I HAVE DOESN'T LOOK LIKE EITHER ONE. I AM SEND YOU A PICTURE OF THE ONE I FOUND IN THE HACKBERRY TREE, HOPE ITS GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU TO HELP ME. THERE ARE BLACK SPECKLES ON THE SIDE WHERE THE YELLOWISH STRIPE IS AND IT HAS A LIGHT YELLOWISH GREEN HEAD. IF THIS IS ANY HELP I LIVE IN SOUTH CAROLINA."


Terry,

You have found an American Snout caterpillar. Congratulations!

It's an unusual butterfly, with long beaklike palpi on either side of its proboscis, creating a snout look.