On my Finnel

I'm sure some one can ID these two ?

Eastern Black Swallowtails - congrats!

They'll also eat Parsley.Dill and wild carrots at my place. They're cool! They actally look like they're holding the plany in "little hands" and eating when they get bigger!

I don't have much fennel or dill so I switch the young cats over to my parsley as soon as I see them.
Also, looks like you have a few eggs on that plant too.

Found another one today, the ones from July made some bird very happy. ^_^

I built , what I call 'My Old Kentucky Home Cat House'
Put in some dill and parsley, so we will see how things turn out.

Oh, how fun! I hope this one remains healthy and happy in his new "home".

Melanie

Found 2 more Eastern Black Swallowtails cats, one very small.
I also found this guy, on the left, at a different place in the garden.
Can anyone ID him ?

The other guy is a Monarch caterpillar from the Danaus family - put some milkweed in there for it. Can't quite tell from the photo but if it has two sets of tubercles it is a Monarch - if it has three sets it is a Queen. They both use milkweed asclepias as a larval host plant.

You might also want to use wet floral foam (sold at walmart and most craft stores) to hold your plant cuttings. It will keep them fresher longer. Just cut a slab of it and let it soak up all the water it can then set it on a styrofoam plate or lid and stick the plant cuttings into it. It's easy to pull out the old cuttings and brush off the frass then add new cuttings. Once it gets too dirty just toss it and use a new piece.

~ Cat

ps...keep a watch out on those bigger cats - they will sometimes go cannibalistic on you :o)

This message was edited Aug 26, 2008 2:35 PM

The Monarch has two anti on each end of the body, don't understand about the tubercles.
Is the milkweed a vine like plant, that's what I was pulling off my Blueberrys when I found him on the ground.
Thanks for the reply....I'll go look for some milkweed, I have some foam.

Question, Monarch must eat something besides milkweed.
I do not have any milkweed around and I also had Monarch cats last year.
I have googled and everything says they only eat milkweed.
Very odd.

Those aren't true "antenna" on the Monarch; they're called tubercles - fleshy appendages that wiggle in a very cute way when they move (my opinion). For him to have gotten that big, there must be a milkweed somewhere. Feel free to post pictures of the plants you have in that area and we'll see if we can figure it out.

Melanie

Will do, Melanie, I'll also post another pic of my cat house, which is getting smaller.

Is there perhaps a wild milkweed vine around? They use that too. The cats seems to be a last instar - a big bugger...so it might have been wandering around looking for a place to pupate. You might end up seeing a chrysalis next time you look into your cat cage :o)

~ Cat

the thing you were pulling off your blueberries was probably the vining milkweed--which I've only todayt learned about myself. See the end of the v.v. long post about favorite fragrant plants where several posts from me finish out the thread. It mentions the 'sand vine' which is another name for this milkweed relative. It smells heavenly and STRONG. Or you could look up 'Cynanchum laeve sand vine' either here in Dave's plant files. or image google it.

It's probably what he was eating when you ripped it off the blueberries and tossed him off into the air [inadvertently, of course,] and onto the ground at your feet.

Dark-dark green narrow arrow shaped leaves, silver veins, light reverse, flowers white or ivory, in a half round about the size of a golfball.

'Kay? Buh-bye.

Melis

Here's a photo of the milkweed vine Queens and Monarchs use in south Texas.
There is a Queen caterpillar on this one. Note the set of three tubercles :o)

~ Cat

This Daves Garden site has some of the Greatest members, Thanks Tons.
Yes it was vineing milkweed that I was removing from the Blueberrys that I found the Monarch and last year found them on the same plant.
I have, for the last 2 years, been removing the plant, Think I'll leave some.
So as they say in Bird ID this mystery in Solved .
I am finding more Swallowtails every time I look, and now I know where to look for Monarchs.
Now I must now build a Larger Cat House, this one is only 8"x10"

Rent...that doesn't look like wet floral foam??? Is it regular styrofoam? If it works for you, that's great. However, the wet floral foam is softer and will absorb the water - which makes it much safer for caterpillars. There is no water for them to drown in :o)

Yep, you can never have enough cages or food for cats!!! ROLF!!!

~ Cat

If it helps the Wet foam is green and not porus. It will say "wet" on the package.

I didn't think it was the right foam, I poked holes all the way through for the cuttings.
I got this from walmart, maybe I try a florist shop.
.....
I think my 'mama rabbit' will have her babies to day or tomorrow, she is very busy putting straw in her nest box.

How exciting on seeing the rabbit nesting. As for the wet foam, try a place like Hobby Lobby or MJ Designs if you have them. Any place that carries crafting supplies should have it.

Just a quick update.
Found the Monarch black and dead this AM.
Got the correct foam, cleaned the cage, put fresh parsley.
My fennel and dill not looking good and picked up two more Swallowtails, now 6 total.

I think mama rabbit had 3 babies at 10am, unusual to give birth during the day.
Not sure about the count, there should be more, like 6-10, I'll check closer tomorrow.
Now must pick some tomatoes to dry in the dehydrator.

Sorry about the Monarch rentman. It happens more often in the wild so don't give up.
One word of caution, try not to disturb the cats if they have crawled up on the sides of the cage or a plant stem and seem still. They do that for about a day before shedding a skin as they go into the next instar. Also you may want to cover the bottom of your cage with paper towels to help with the daily cleaning of frass.
The Monarch may have been used by a parasitic wasp or fly. What happens is they eat the insides of the cats as they mature. Usually they are timed so they come out of the chrysalis as an adult fly or wasp.

Glad you got the right foam.

PuddyPrint, your vine looks a bit different to mine. Guess they're still same family, though. The leaves are nearly identical, mine might have more silver veining, but the flower looks a lot different. Must be slight regional differences, but so long as the butterfly babies like em, right?

Rent...glad you got the right foam. Bummer about the monarch cat. Show the bunny photos? I think baby bunnies are sooooooooo cute!

Melissa...we get a few different kinds out here. Very invasive but yes, the butterflies and some moths use them so I leave them alone. They are also a good nectar source when they are blooming.

~ Cat

Eastern Black Swallowtails have been eating...

And Two of these...

And looks like this one is getting ready for something, bend there all day.

Oh yeah, you can see the sling around the cat in the last photo. Should be a chrysalis within a day or so!

Melanie

Oh that Parsley makes them fat ^_^
Let you know when it changes, how long, how many hours does it take to make the chrysales ?

They usually stay in the 'comma' position as in your last pic for one day with the sling intact 24hrs. During the night or early the next day, the skin will split behind it's head and it will wiggle and twist until it gets that skin completely off. Then the chrysalis will harden.
After that ....it's a crap shoot!! lol! Some emerge in 10 - 14 days, others will over winter as a chrysalis.

Thanks for the reply, Sheila, I'm going to check every hour or so, (my wife thinks I'm nuts)

Yup, it's usually about 24 hours from the time they make their sling. Give or take a few hours, of course. But if the make their sling in the morning, for example, expect them to make the chrysalis the following morning.

Isn't is nice to have a place to talk to other crazy people, lol? I've been known to take my critter keepers into the bathroom with me. My caterpillars are bad for making their chrysalids when I'm brushing my teeth at night.

Melanie

I took two Monarch chrysalis to work one morning when they were due to emerge. Everyone's eyes were glued to the cage 8am,,,9am...10am...10:30... then we all got busy or lost interest. Finally about 11 am one was flapping around. It happens in a flash. I had forgotten about the a/c effecting them and it happened later than I thought it would.
The BST shedding of the skin is quick too rentman, so you aren't silly for checking often if you want to see it. If you have a video cam you can set up try that. They are stationary except for wiggling.

It is 9:28 here and it is starting to change now, so by morning it will be all gray.
Others are leaving the food and climbing to the top of the cage.

Yes peoples hobbies are weird to others, but what can we do ? ^_^

My DH used to call them worms. He is more into my hobby now. I had gone somewhere and he had to release the butterflies on morning for me. I think that was the turning point.

I'm sure when you raise one and see it change your life changes.

Yep, you're hooked now!

Wooohooo, thank you rentman for initiating this thread. Just the very info. I'm searching for while I try to look out for some of my newly discovered EBST cats.

I've seen close to a dozen of these 'lil ones on my parsley, where they seem to be away from the many wasps visiting my dills. This morning I found this lone cat. on my dill's seedpod spray. I'll see about moving this one over to the parsley -- away from those 'meany' wasps ridden dills/fennels.

Nice dill seed Lily, I picked a lot of heads with large seed but now most of the heads have small seed,
but back to my cats....
Five are in their chrysalis.
Three are getting hoked up to make their chrysalis tomorrow
And one is still eating.

This message was edited Sep 3, 2008 2:07 PM