so many caterpillars

11 years ago

I went on a walk through the woods that are behind my house in the search for butterfly larvae and eggs. As I walked I ran into a patch of sassafras saplings,so it was only natural that I searched the leaves for spice bush swallowtail eggs. Long and behold, I found at least 9 eggs and a small 2nd in-star caterpillar. There were probably more, but I was happy with the nine eggs and cat. My luck didn't stop there, as I continued my journey I found many wild black cherries and checked the tips of the leaves for red spotted purple eggs. I found so many eggs and caterpillars I wasn't even able to count how many I had found. the last shock of my day was the finding of dwarf paw paw. I know its native to the eastern half of the USA, but I just didn't think it grew in the woods behind my house. the leaves of the paw paw bared 3 eggs ready to hatch and four zebra swallowtail larvae of various in-stars. I feel so spoiled with finding these caterpillars and eggs. However, what I don't understand is that there were a lot of sweet bay trees growing in the woods and along the edges of the woods, but not a single tree had any eastern swallowtail eggs or cats. I use to find dozens of these caterpillars last year around the same time. Does anyone have any ideas why I am not able to find eastern tiger swallowtails now? oh, and I am still searching for question mark and red admiral cats and eggs, but I only see the adults and never the host plants or cats.

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Comments (5)

MissSherry
11 years ago
Congrats on finding all those red-spotted purples and spicebush swallowtails! The same situation exists here, I'm only bringing in a small percentage to raise of what's out there. And ESPECIALLY congrats on the zebra swallowtails!!! They're so rare, at least around here they are.

I'm surprised you ever found eastern swallowtails (I assume you mean eastern tiger swallowtails?) on sweetbays. My woods is full of sweetbays, but I've never found anything but sweetbay moths on them. I don't find many tiger cats anywhere, and I assume it's because they're up high in the wild black cherry and tulip poplars. I find them occasionally on these two trees at low enough levels I can see them, but, based on how much time tigers spend flying high up in the air, especially around these two trees, I think that's where they lay most of their eggs. They normally start coming down in large numbers to nectar on flowers in my garden once the heat of summer gets here.

Still, if you ever found tiger cats/eggs in significant numbers at low levels on your sweetbays, it's a shame you're not finding them now. Either they're doing like mine and laying high, or their numbers are down in your area this year. I'm only raising one tiger now, and it's STILL eating and growing, getting real big. It should be purging and turning brown to pupate soon.

Sherry
button20
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you Miss Sherry for your input! I believe you are right about the eastern tiger swallowtails laying their eggs high up in the canopies of the trees. Perhaps sweet bay just wasn't on there list of best host plants.
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MissSherry
11 years ago
Button20, this afternoon I was in the bottom of the hollow raking up leaves to use as mulch in my garden. There is a sweetbay magnolia that was bent over in an arch over a path by Hurricane Katrina. It has grown lots of suckers skyward from the arch, and the lowest of these has bent over towards the ground. I walked over to give the new growth leaves on the low-growing branch a look, hoping to find a sweetbay moth caterpillar. Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather, but I found a tiger swallowtail caterpillar! It was the same instar (stage) that the other one I found was in when I found it -

{{gwi:463200}}

I can't make a picture of it, because my camera won't work - it's stuck in the out position. Cameras don't last long with me!

Anyway, it's amazing I found this one right after telling you how surprising it is that you'd ever find them there! This makes four different host plants I've found tiger cats on just on my property - wild black cherry, tulip poplar, wafer ash/hops tree/Ptelea trifoliata, and now sweetbay magnolia!

This is a good time to find another one, since the first one is pupating. As I recall from raising sweetbay moth cats, sweetbay stays fresh in water a long time, which is good.

Sherry
krystalfoxfire
11 years ago
Wow! You found quite the haul there! Congrats on all those cats and eggs! :D
I've been wandering around the local park forest, searching low hanging branches and plants with chew-marks but I've yet to find anything. Maybe I should be searching the black cherry trees instead!
button20
Original Author
11 years ago
OH Miss sherry I am so happy for you! please keep us updated with the little guy/gal. No matter how many times I raise a butterfly from start to finish, I never get tired of seeing the caterpillars or eggs grow and transform into beautiful butterflies or moths. Krystalfoxfire, you should definitely check those wild cherry leaves. I always like to call them the universal host plant because so many different species of moths and butterflies feed on it. I wish you the best of luck, and Krystalfoxfire let us know if you find anything!