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roselee_gw

Please ID this cat on Sprengeri type fern ...

Here's the caterpillar...
{{gwi:476752}}

And here's the fern it's on. The name is often confused with other ferns ....
{{gwi:476754}}

I never heard of a caterpillar using a fern as food so
I'm wondering if it fell out of the Youpon holly tree
that growing above it. If so I will put it back.
However, he's got a pretty good disquise fern wise as
he looked like a dead piece. A Cedar elm is
also growing near by. With all the wind we've had
he could have blown in from no telling where. There
are also live oaks and Spanish oaks in the
viciinity.

Thanks for your ideas.

Comments (5)

  • roselee z8b S.W. Texas
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Just saw another smaller one on Mexican feather grass. I bet they blew off of something else.

  • Leafhead
    10 years ago

    It looks like one of the Wooly Bears, or Tiger moths.
    pictured above is not a true fern, but a spp of Asparagus. Plant in the second pic is Asparagus plumosa.
    Wooly Bears feed on a wide variety of plants.

  • roselee z8b S.W. Texas
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thank you! I moved the larger wolly bear to the elm tree, one of the food sources listed, in hopes of giving it a better chance. Couldn't find the small one.

  • Leafhead
    10 years ago

    He found his way back to the elm, I suppose. Cats are good at locating their food sources.

  • roselee z8b S.W. Texas
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    When I got home a little after noon he had not eaten any of the elm leaves I put him on, but was just clinging to a stem. Lots of cats eat hackberry, so I took him to some fresh hackberry leaves. He crawled around and then just clung to the stem again. I then tried him on horse herb. He started eating it immediately. Lots of horse herb growing around here so horse herb it is.

    I'm reminded of a story I read about some crabs trapped on the beach by a high tide. A boy began throwing them over the sand bar and back into the sea. A man came along and said "Boy, you ain't going to no difference. There's hundreds of crabs trapped up here." The boy threw another crab back into the sea and said, "For that one it did."

    Love that story!