That's a buckeye on Agalinis, their favorite host plant, Ron - it looks like A. fasciulata, the same that grows here.
I've raised four so far this year. Here's a cat -
{{gwi:525781}}
And here's one of them as an adult -
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I've planted other things that buckeyes were supposed to use as a host plant, because Agalinis doesn't really come up until summer. I see buckeyes off and on all year, and would like to raise some in spring, too. Plus, deer and/or rabbits browse Agalinis, sometimes severely.
I've got some wild petunias/Ruellia caroliniana to plant in my grassy meadows, plus I've ordered some Castilleja coccinea/Indian paintbrush seeds. I'll be waiting until after we mow the meadows so when I sow the seeds, I'll have a chance of being able to scratch them into the soil.
Congrats on your buckeye!

Sherry in MS formerly known as misssherry

Hey misssherry, thanks for the ID.
Changed your name to protect the innocent?
I guess you've heard them all :-)

Interesting additions to your meadow,esp like the showy Indian paint brush. I found this bit of info, but I suspect you have done your homework and knew this already..

"Species is also semi-parasitic in that its roots will attach to and absorb some nutrients and water from the roots of certain other plants. Evidence suggests that paintbrush will perform best in cultivation when grown in combination with one or more of the plants it commonly parasitizes in the wild (e.g., Schizachyrium, Penstemon and/or Sisyrinchium). Difficult to grow from seed. Although plants will reseed in optimum growing conditions, reseeding alone is often not enough to keep plants in the garden unless new plants and/or additional seeding are done each year until a colony is established."
http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/plant.asp?code=J690

Other than Mother Nature's "slow" timeframe, are you pleased with the progress of the/your meadow?
Any sign of the liatrius? Certainly there should be.

I have a new volunteer, just started blooming,
Slender lespedeza (Lespedeza virginica) best I can tell.

Any seed yet from your local Coneflower??

{{gwi:541867}}

No coneflower seeds, Ron, and I haven't found any liatris coming up. Mostly just a variety of grasses, some new, so I guess they've come from grass seed I sowed. I sowed a lot of purple top seeds, and it looked pretty when it was in bloom.
Several camphorweed plants came up, they made some pretty flowers, but only bees nectared on them. Passionvines are coming up in the meadows, also. Agalinis grows on two of the meadows.
Good we got rain today - 'can't wait for the cold front to pass through with those night time lows in the low 50's!
Sherry

Sherry, do you plan to direct sow your Indian Paintbrush? I'm wondering if that is the best route to use for these semi-parasitic plants.

Susan

That's the plan, Susan. Since they're semi-parisitic, that seems like the best/only way. They'll have to stratify the natural way. :)

Ron, Agalinis is semi or hemi-parasitic on the roots of other plants, mostly grasses, also - it's a common characteristic of the snapdragon family.

Sherry

This thread prompted me to check the Agalinis for buckeye cats - I found ten! This one had just molted - weird looking, huh?
{{gwi:541870}}
Sherry

Lots of great pictures folks.

As for LFP's for this species... if a plant species is present naturally in your area that has supported generations of this lep naturally, they will use them again if encountered in your garden. What may appear to be the favorite food plant in one garden/area does not in any way make it the favorite food plant of the species though. A local colony in a specific area tends to use the same list of plants naturally while not using others they also use elsewhere. But that list of accepted or rejected LFP's may not hold true of other colonies even a relatively short distance away. This lep uses at least 50 different plant species in NA. So I wouldn't tie myself down to just one plant for them when there are so many that are accepted by them naturally even in your own local area.

Changing LFP midstream was a common need in much of my rearing. We took off on lep field trips several times a season in our RV for 2-3 weeks at a time, plus one 6 week trip each year. We took our livestock with us on these trips instead of hauling them over to one of my lep friends to babysit like I did when out of the country. While I had the RV custom built with rearing facilities, an over sized 3-way fridge and a huge extra DC powered chest for LFP, I couldn't carry enough LFP to last for a trip for the shear numbers reared of so many species most years. So when what I brought from home ran out they got fed what I found for them along the way, no matter what state we were in, what habitat or which species of plant I'd find from the list of plants known to be used by each species "somewhere". Coenia was one of the easy ones to switch LFP's on.

The real challenge switching plants was when I'd get livestock from another county that only used LFP's we had no counterpart close relative of in the US. For example, with a little research I figured out I should try Larrea (native only to the America's) to rear some foreign Parnassinae larva sent to me. They accepted it to everyones surprise and I got all of them through. Fun tidbit about Larrea BTW... a large ring of it on the Mojave Desert (CA side) known as the King Clone is thought to be the oldest continuously living thing on earth... about 12,000 years old.
FWIW

I've been reading about Larrea on my computer, Larry - how interesting! Larrea/creosote has got to be the toughest plant in America, and it's amazing that buckeye cats would eat it. You'd think anything that smelled like creosote would be repulsive to them, but if you're hungry enough.....
Of course, caterpillars aren't known for their brains or palates.
Sherry

Sherry,

I did not state that Junonia coenia would eat Larrea, so you misread what I did say about this plant. The only leps I know of that that do use it naturally are nondescript moths. Their larva and cocoons can be found on it in season quite easily. There are many lep plants far more repulsive to us than Larrea IMO. Just based on how they smell alone (to us), Thamnosma montana immediately comes to mind. Unlike with Larrea, just brushing against it is akin to getting sprayed by a skunk, and actually picking it for LFP assures the odor will remain with you about as long. Even so Papilio "coloro" thrives on it (as does range cattle, wild donkey's, deer, etc when there is nothing else to eat). Coloro in quotes because the jury is still out where it belongs taxonomically for some of us.

Plants that have extremely long lives have always been of interest to me even when not associated with leps. How some of them have evolved and so adapted to survive for so long is amazing and certainly makes them extreme survivalists.
Larry

Sorry I misunderstood, Larry!
But it's certainly an interesting plant, especially the King Clone!
By calling them repulsive, I'm not trying to insult the plants, because all plants are wondrous. I'm just thinking of the odors that came from the old creosote plant in Gulfport. They used to (and maybe still do) soak the wood in creosote that was used to make piers out into the Gulf. It must have been some powerful stuff to preserve wood in salt water!
Sherry

Ron, I went out to the garden and found a seed head of those Louisiana coneflowers - it has seeds still in it. Send me your address, and I'll mail them to you.
I e-mailed you this message via Garden Web, but just in case you don't get it, I put it here, too.

Sherry

I just want to say I am so happy to find such generous folks here. :) I love to see that. Far too often I see stingy people in the world. It's wonderful to see how generous people are here on GW!

So Thank you to all of you who share so much, so often! ~Tina

Rather than swamp this thread, I'll start another one as "Buckeye LFP Model" that I put together to suggest how LFP preferencescan vary even in a small location.
L.