Laura,

I thought I had pictures of the life cycle of the QM on my gallery. And, I don't. I'll have to check my photo files. The caterpillars are smaller than the Monarch and Black Swallowtails--more like the size of the Am Painted Lady caterpillars. So, probably about an inch or so in length. They pretty much just pupate on whatever is in the rearing cage with them. I had four pupate in a row on a stick once. I think the chrysalides are beautiful. They also wiggle around a lot as pupae.

sandy

'Looks like some type elm to me - I don't think hackberry has that much serration on the leaves.
I've never measured QM cats, but here's a picture of a late instar cat -
{{gwi:472701}}
Sherry

Thanks - I have some that are looking similar to this - and some that are definitely more than an inch in size, so maybe they are getting close? I'm still unsure of the plant... it's leaves are sticky. I wash my hands after touching it just because they leave a sticky residue on them. The leaves also have a bit of a sand-papery feel to them. I dropped my 18-55mm lens so can't get a good picture of the little guys but I'll try to see if I can with the zoom lens.

~Laura

Some pics of my caterpillars.
{{gwi:504521}}

{{gwi:504522}}

{{gwi:504524}}

This last one is the largest and also slightly different in coloration. The camera was a bit out of focus... oh well.

~Laura

Guess I should have been more patient... I have a chrysallis this morning!

~Laura

Congrats, Laura!
You'll have question mark butterflies soon!
Sherry

Thank you! I'm pretty excited about it!

I saw the female a few days ago on the same tree/bush laying eggs again, so maybe the Question Marks can satisfy my butterfly needs until the Monarchs return or the Gulf Fritillaries ever show up.

~Laura

I'm happy to report that 6 of the 7 caterpillars have formed their chrysallis. I'm anxious for the first one to eclose! :-)

~Laura

Congrats on your QMs, Laura! I have raised them on several occasion. I usually find my eggs/cats on American Elm and you are right, the leaves are sticky! I have found them once on Hackberry, which I have as well. Hackberry is also in the Elm, Ulmaceae family. They will also occasionally lay eggs on my Hops vine and my False Nettle. The eggs are so cool.

Susan

Thank you Susan! It's been fun! I haven't seen anymore eggs but I'm keeping my eyes peeled.

~Laura

First two made their debut this morning!

{{gwi:504526}}

{{gwi:504527}}

~Laura

Congratulations!
Your QM is puzzling me, Laura - it looks like a summer form QM on the top and more like a fall/winter QM on the underside.
Here are some pictures to show what I mean -
The topside of a summer form QM -
{{gwi:491353}}
The underside of a summer form QM -
{{gwi:504528}}
The topside of a fall/winter individual -
{{gwi:480342}}
The underside of a fall/winter individual -
{{gwi:461271}}
And here's the only picture I've ever made of a comma -
{{gwi:504529}}
I'm accustomed to summer question marks having a lot of gray on the undersides, but maybe it's just a local difference. Or maybe yours is the similar but smaller comma?
Sherry

The odd thing I've noticed about most summer QM cats is they don't fold leaves around themselves like the spring ones do. I saw a QM laying eggs on my nettles a week or so ago. Yesterday, I did not see any folded leaves so I looked under some leaves and found a 2nd or 3rd instar QM cat.

Here's one more pic - maybe this will help?

{{gwi:504531}}

Looking at my field guide I see what you're saying, but, the field guide specifies that the two main differences are the black dash on the forewing (which mine has and a Comma does not have) and the dot that is adjacent to the comma shape on the hindwing (which mine has a Comma does not.)

Thoughts?

Yes, Laura, you're correct, yours is a question mark - I forgot about the dashes. Also, there is a slight difference in body shape, and yours has the squarer shape of a QM.
One time I had a batch of QMs in the late summer/early fall, and half of them turned out to be the summer form, the other half were fall/winter forms! Question marks have some interesting variations don't they?
Sherry

I have four more yet - one appears to maybe be ready tomorrow. :-)

I also found some BST cats today so I took them in to raise them as two of the larger ones met their demise via wasp before I made it into the house and back and one of the earlier instars was being sucked dry by a spider.

~Laura

I have now released 5!! Two more to go...

{{gwi:504532}}

{{gwi:504533}}

{{gwi:504534}}

Just beautiful!

Sherry

Thank you Sherry. Thank God for the Question Marks or my summer butterfly raising would have been very un-eventful. :-)

We got RAIN by the way!! It rained tonight for about 40 minutes and there might be a bit more on the way. It's not nearly enough but it was so nice and the temperatures dropped 28 degrees in about 5 minutes. Ahhhhh!

~Laura

It has been maybe a month since I've seen any QM cats on my nettles. Thought they were done.

Maybe a week ago, I found a QM chrysalis had appeared on the trim around my son's window. Yesterday, I looked higher up and saw a QM "J" hanging down from my roof ridge (not sure what to call it - no gutters on this wall - wall is stucco but just below the roofline there is a aluminum trim piece that runs along the roof line - cat was hanging from that piece). Then I noticed another one hanging plus a chrysalis. Today, there were more cats hanging up there. Still not finding cats on the nettles so they are hiding well.

While backing out of my garage today, I noticed that 2 of the QMs on my house had eclosed. Ran inside, told my kids, and then took off. When I got home, my daughter informed me they were not QMs, they were commas. 2nd year in a row I've had commas.