It looks like a tobacco budworm to me. These caterpillars come in many colors, and, according to David Wagner, they 'end up matching the color of their foodplant' so I'm guessing this one has been eating another flower before it traveled to the pink hibiscus. Or maybe it was eating deep inside the bud where it was pale green. These caterpillars are closely related to the familiar corn earworm. Cotton is second in the list of common food plants, and cotton and hibiscus are in the same family of plants, so it figures.

I've never raised any gray hairstreaks, so I had to look them up, too, in my Wagner book. He didn't say whether they ONLY eat flowers, but he says that's where to look for them, and the picture in the book is of a cat on a flower. The mallow family is listed second as a favorite food plant, and hibiscus and cotton are in that family. I assume they eat flowers exclusively, but I'd offer it some leaves, just in case.

Nice finds!

Sherry

Guess ill let the big guy go. I have another ID needed. I found this guy on a hackberry tree. Could it be a cecropia moth hatchling. It's extremely small right now. I just reversed one of my lens to get a close up. I'm REALLLLLLY hoping its the moth and not a baby tussock moth hatchling

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Sherry I put the hairstreak cat on some white clover buds. I googled and it says they like those? I'm going to take a macro shot of it later and post. It's verrrrry small. It could fit on a pencil eraser. He also was eating the hibiscus flower but he was very well hidden deep inside one of the petals underneath. I only found him because I snapped apart the flower because I seen frass. And I just knew he was hiding in there somewhere!!

Hackberry is a host for question marks and commas, and I'm pretty sure that's what your caterpillar is, one or the other. Bascially, commas are just smaller versions of QMs, have the same host plants (all in the Urticales order) and look alike, although comma cats are usually paler. Well, there is a minor difference in wing shape, but it doesn't matter for you now. I've made some pictures of QMs (I've never raised commas) over the years. Here's a picture of a QM hatchling -

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And some early instar cats -

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Later instar cats -

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I think your cat is a question mark - congratulations!!

Sherry

I'd be soooo excited!! Someone on Facebook said it was a buck moth caterpillar. It's far too small to tell. I'm so excited! I've put in ALOT of work this year building a butterfly habitat and I'm so glad it's paying off!!

I don't know anything about raising hairstreaks (wish I did!) but my books list members of the pea family first for gray hairstreaks, and clover is a member of that family, so it's probably good.

I forgot that you mentioned that your cat might be a cecropia. I have a few pictures of early instar cecropia cats.

Hatchling -

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Early instar cats -

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I've got some pictures of later instar cecropias, if it turns out your cat is a cecropia. I think it's a question mark, though.

Sherry

This is the gray hairstreak cat! Or at least I'm thinking that's what it is.

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