Top Photo: Sawfly larva or caterpillar? I received an email, with a blurry photo attached, stating that the emailer had taken the photo in Explore the Wild. The subjects in the photo looked to be caterpillars, but may have been sawflies, I couldn’t tell. I had to go look for myself. The email said that the caterpillars, or whatever they were, were on a birch tree on the north side of the Wetlands. There are three birches on the north side ofRead more
Posts tagged: #larva
Milkweed (Butterfly Weed)
The one, and pretty much only, Butterfly Weed plant out in Catch the Wind is about to cast its seeds to the wind. There are no leaves on the plant, just a bunch of scrawny looking stalks and some seed pods. But don’t pass by that one lonely milkweed plant out in Catch the Wind without stopping to give it the once-over. There are creatures present worth examining. A few weeks back I mentioned here in this Journal that thereRead more
Not a cloud in sight
As I mentioned in a recent post, Cloudless Sulphurs are laying eggs on our Partridge Pea out in Catch the Wind. Partridge Pea is a senna, a legume. If you have it growing in your yard you will have Cloudless Sulphur caterpillars on the plant, it’s a fairly certain thing in our area. The butterfly is common from about mid July to November, most common in August and September, right now! Cloudless Sulphurs presumably get their common name from theRead more
My, how they’ve grown!
A recent post to this Journal featured two caterpillars, one of those was the larva of a Cloudless Sulphur butterfly on Partridge Pea in Catch the Wind. On August 2, I noticed one of these large yellow sulphurs lay at least one egg on the plant. Fives days later I saw one, then two, caterpillars munching away on the plant’s flowers. It’s now August 15, and the caterpillars have grown considerably. They will probably crawl off to pupate within aRead more
Two caterpillars of vastly different proportions.
It was only five days after watching a Cloudless Sulphur lay an egg on the Partridge Pea in Catch the Wind that I saw evidence of caterpillars. As I walked by the plants on Tuesday of last week I noticed one of the flowers had been partially eaten. I didn’t have my camera with me (why do I even consider walking the loop without my camera?) but the Otter Box encased iPhone that I had strapped to my belt recordedRead more