HELP with cat ID .....

I don't know what this little cat is. They are the cats on my Jasmine bush. Anyone know?

Is it a Giant Swallowtail?

I don't think it is a GSWT, it doesn't look like bird doo.

Yes, it's a GST cat. That's what the first instars look like :o)

~ Cat

Cat,

That is a great photo!

Wow, I didn't know that!

Thanks Cat!

:o) Thanks Mark

Fly...the bird poo phase will show up soon enough :o)

Ya know...if I hadn't known any better I would have thought they were wooly bears...since those guys eat everything in sight! But I'm pretty attentive to what lays eggs on my plants and what butterflies to expect.

~ Cat

Okay ..... now I am in a panic! Thanks for the ID, Cat!

I am worried that the plant they were laid on is NOT a host plant. So............. I tore off a piece of my wild lime bush. I put both the piece of Jasmine they were on along with a piece of the Wild Lime in a small cage. They don't seem to be eating anything!!!! This is gonna break my heart if they don't survive. I sooooooooooooooo want Giant Swallowtails in my garden. I need gooood vibes and host food for these little GST cats!!! I'm not feeling real good about the future of these 2 little babies. I think I'll make another trip out to the backyard and break off some Hercules Club, too! Maybe between all these choices they will find one to survive on???? (Oh sure hope so!)

Becky...wasn't it a Tiger ST you saw laying eggs on your jasmine in an earlier post? The eggs looked like a GST - ya know...round and yellow.

Do the jasmine leaves look eaten?...or nibbled on? I hadn't heard of GST using jasmine until your other post.

Guess you can put a variety of citrus leaves, hercules club, prickly lime ash, rue or see if ya'll have any native larval hosts like colima or baretta nearby and put some of those in too.

Hope they survive. Best of luck!!!

~ Cat

I'm so bummed. The little fellas are NOT eating anything. I fear the worst. I will be taking them to school with me today. We have 1 small Rue at the school. :-)

Crossing my fingers!

Aw Becky, I sure hope he is alright. I thought their cammo worked pretty well for them. What kind of bird would eat something that looks like their own poo?

:-/

Deb - The two little tiny cats are still alive at the moment. They just are NOT eating any leaves. I really believe that the Jasmine is NOT a host plant. So far they have not been impressed with the Hercules Club or the Wild Lime. I shall be trying Rue as a last resort! Nothing else available in their host plant range here. :-(

Does anyone know how long after emerging from their egg that it takes before they start eating? I thought it was almost immediately.

The egg shell does have a lot of nutrients..I think they would generally find their host plant by themselves, wouldn't they? Plus it is a lot of work being hatched, maybe they are resting..One can hope.

Maybe I'm looking for the wrong size of GST cats on my locust.....I'm looking for bird poop when I should be looking for lil striped guys.


I knew I was raising that darn araila spinosa for some purpose...LOL

P

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/620223/

At the very top of this thread murraya paniculata is listed as a host plant for the GST.

azreno - I don't know if the Jasmine that I have is actually the Murraya paniculata. Maybe it is and that is why the GST laid eggs on it. But the cats are NOT eating the leaves. They are however eating the leaves of the Hercules Club that I also put in the cage with the Jasmine leaves that I found them on. So hopefully I'll be able to get them to the butterfly stage. None of my bushes are very big yet. But there are just 2 cats ..... so how much can they eat??? LOL!

The plant is not a true jasmine (jasminum)- the structure is wrong. Have you looked at images of murraya to see if it looks like your plant?

azreno - Yes, I have looked at photos, but I just can't be sure. The weird thing is that the cats are NOT eating the leaves from that plant. You would think if it WAS it's host plant that it would be eating it. Go figure! Thanks for trying to steer me in the right direction. I just can't be sure.

I hope they start to eat something :(

Becky, is the Hercules C close to the Jasmine?.....Or was the mother just way off target?

Rox - No, the Jasmine is NOT close to the Hercules Club or the Wild Lime bushes. It's just weird it didn't go to those plants and instead laid eggs on the Jasmine instead.

The baby cats are eating the Hercules Club leaves and they are still alive. So I am a bit more hopeful now. Maybe they will make it. Time will tell. I am sure hoping!

That's strange, but I'm glad you saved them :))))

Woohoo!!! Glad to read that bit of news!

~ Cat

There ya go Becky...Sometimes it takes them a bit to get reoriented...

Deb

According to my caterpillar filed guide,GST cats host plants are Prickly ash(araila spinosa)grapefruit,lemon,orange,wild lime,torchwood and hop tree.

Hope ya'll don't mind me horning in on this thread. I'm trying to learn as much as possible.

P

Yes, they also use torchwood out at the NABA park. Had forgotten to mention that one. :o)

~ Cat

Just logged on Becky and saw your "dilemma". I'm so glad that they're eating for you! It's the worst sort of panic for us...isn't it??

~Adrienne

And GST cats aren't real big eaters at that stage. The first time I had one I thought it would die. Didn't ever seem to move or eat. Then I noticed the munched on places on the leaf.

Y'all - I just have to tell ya that they are growing and doing fine so far. I just had to go outside tonight with my flashlight. I love doing that every now and again. Well, I found another tiny little cat on the Jasmine bush. And of course ..... I brought him inside to the cage. He looked kinda hungry. Reminds me of The Very Hungry Caterpillar book! LOL! A favorite story of my students! :-) So now I have 3 Giant Swallowtail cats. Whoo Hoo! How exciting!

Just wait until my family sees what they look like as adult butterflies. Boy! Are they going to be WOWed! lol My son and husband are really starting to become more interested and ask me questions about the caterpillars and the butterflies. (Hee, hee!)

Linda - Thanks for giving me the heads up on the slow growth at this instar stage. That was really helpful as I thought they weren't eating because they weren't growing. But you are right!!!! And, I, too noticed the chewed leaves. :-)

Very exciting Becky! The only GSTs I've seen so far this season were males...Who knows, maybe today when the wind dies down.

Take some pics Beck, I want to see the gradual changes.

Deb

Here's a current photo of the 3 little cats. I thought one had died because it wasn't moving around much at all. But it might have been changing to the next instar stage. They don't seem to be growing very fast at this early stage. None of my host bushes are very big, so once these cats get bigger, I may try to get them to eat Wild Lime leaves. The Hercules Club is much easier for them to eat at this stage as the leaf is much thinner. (The Wild Lime has thick leaves.)

My camera doesn't do macro, so not the greatest photos. But at least you will get the idea of the sizes of these cats. Mind you, they are very small right now.

Here's a closer shot of the 2 smaller cats.

And this is the largest cat.

Your pics are fine.. We can see them really good!

They're so darn cute!!

Unfortunately, I only have one cat left of the three that I originally found. I caught the larger cat with the littlest cat in it's mouth eating it. Eeeeeekkkkkkk! And the middle sized cat died. It had not been looking well at all to me. But the larger cat is getting bigger and seems to be doing just fine.

I have been using wild lime and hercules club leaves as food for this remaining cat and he is eating both plants. Which is good! It's weird because his body is shiny, not dull like many cats. I will keep y'all posted.

This message was edited May 10, 2007 10:15 PM

Oh Lordy Beck! They are like canabals!! LOL! Or like Beta fish, need separate tanks, maybe they need separate cages in the future.

Whew!!

:-D

Well, my lone cat is finally showing some growth. It's still got that shiny body going on. Weird! The rapid growth spurts and then no growth at all are NOT typical of most cats. This is the oddest cat I have ever raised. And they aren't much to look at either. It still looks like bird poop. But ....... in their adult form they are gorgeous big butterflies! I am looking forward to that stage in this creature's life. He's a picky eater too. Seems to prefer the Hercules Club. (I know that you will be happy to hear that, Deb!)

Added: Yes siree Deb, I should've separated them to begin with, but usually when they are that small they don't attack each other. I think this species is quite different than most butterflies/cats. It's sure got some weird habits. They are definitely "loners".

This message was edited May 15, 2007 8:33 PM

KIndof an orange dog eat orange dog world...
Maybe they aren't as apt to run into each other in the wild as in a cage.
So far this cat has been an egg and a cat for about 20 days. (Counting at least 5 days prior to the pic at the top of this thread. If I were to guess pupation will be in another 15 to 20 days.) Lot slower/longer timw than ones we've raised before huh, Becky?

Oh wow! I thought I had been keeping up this thread. I must have posted photos and documentation on another thread. Oops!

Here is a photo of the cat right before it went into it's chrysalis:

Another view that isn't quite so dark so you can see the true colors:

Outstanding Becky!
A GST came by and left around 8-10 eggs yesterday. Most are on the Hercules Clava... I think she hit everything except the Orange Dragon this time... Yaay!

:-D