caterpillars

My Favorite Caterpillar

| Flower Roberts

I feel fortunate that I found these little Saddleback Caterpillars.

They were not in their usual place, the underside of leaves on the banana trees.

This year they are on my coffee tree.

I only found them because I was removing scale from the underside of the coffee leaves.

There are three. All are small.

IMG_8132

This one is not much bigger than those nasty scale.( brown dot on the left)

IMG_8140

They hide under the leaves and crawl along the stem to another leaf.

IMG_8071
Saddleback Caterpillar, Sabine stimulea

The spines of  the Sabine stimulea sting,  so I know not to touch them.

IMG_8069

Look but don’t touch!

Flower and Friends

Caterpillars Come Back

| Flower Roberts

Okay.  I know these are not the same caterpillars as last year.

Those are long gone as Fritillary butterflies.

I grow these wild Passion vines just for them.

IMG_2330

I have been inspecting the leaves for weeks.

IMG_2326

I was beginning to get concerned.

IMG_2327

Then they appeared.

IMG_2342

Large and small. Over and under. Here and there.

IMG_2335

Just like always.

IMG_2343

I love them with a Passion.

IMG_2332

FLOWER

 

 

Parsley in Protective Custody

| Flower Roberts

My parsley plant started disappearing again.

Last time this happened, I found a little striped Black Swallowtail caterpillar munching on it.

IMG_1279

After a few days it crawled up on the Passion vine, changed shape,

IMG_1292

formed a chrysalis, and disappeared.

IMG_1417

This time though, I could not find the culprit.

Each day the plant got smaller and smaller.

Ah Ha!  I finally caught the bandit in action.

No Black Swallowtail this go-round.

It was a black New Zealand Lop rabbit, Charlotte.

IMG_4664

The plant has been moved out of reach of Miss Munchie.

IMG_4905

She was out there searching for her snack this morning.

IMG_4936

Whew! These rabbits keep me hopping.

FLOWER

Another Cute Little Stinger

| Flower Roberts

I had to search for these two, but I knew that they ate banana leaves.

IMG_3467
Saddleback caterpillars. Large one above the scissor handle. Small one at the point.

These are Saddleback caterpillars/Archaria stimulea.

IMG_3473

They are beautiful.  The hairs are their stingers.   Their venom is painful.

IMG_3487

I was stung by one over thirty years ago. I still remember the shock of it.

IMG_3475

Itty bitty, greenie weanie, tiny little stinging meanie.

FLOWER

He’s Cute! Can I Pet Him?

| Flower Roberts

I found this fuzzy baby munching on some Lucifer leaves.

IMG_3352

He looks so much like a tiny Barley bunny, that I wanted to pick him up.

IMG_3384

Good thing I know better.

IMG_3340

This sweet little puss caterpillar also has another name.

Asp caterpillar.

IMG_3339
Megalopyge opercularis, wooly slug, asp caterpillar

Megalopyge opercularis/Flannel moth caterpillar/wooly slug

If you must pet it, you will get stung.

IMG_3340

He’s cute, but he’s mean.

FLOWER

Coffee Cups Caterpillar Crapper

| Flower Roberts

This is NOT how I intended this to turn out.

I have been very pleased with the new placement of Colocasia escuelenta/ Coffee cups/ West Indian Kale near the small fish pond.

IMG_2555

I intended to write a post about moving plants until you and the plant are both happy.

IMG_2560

Well, now there is a third party involved.

The oak tree above is full of munching little caterpillars.

If you look up, you see naked limbs.

IMG_3252

If you look down, you see feces.  Now the water in the cups has the color of coffee. Yuck!

IMG_3248

So thus the name of the post, in honor of Thomas Crapper of Chelsea. The owner of an early lavatory manufacturer in London.

IMG_3253

My OCD self keeps flushing the leaves with water.  No pun intended.

FLOW

 

The Disappearing Fern

| Flower Roberts

My first orders of business when I return from a trip are to check on the bunnies

img_5531

and then to tour my plants to check for any changes.

To my shock and horror, when I peered into the baby fern box

img_5510

my prized Dragon’s Tail fern/Aspleniaceae x Ebenoides was missing many fronds.

Not whole fronds. The midribs remained sticking out nakedly brown without the lovely green scales.

img_5508

Something had eaten the Dragon’s Tails down to the bones.

There were droppings left on the dish below.  Evidence.

img_5504

A hungry caterpillar was feasting on my favorite fern.

I searched the soil before examining each frond.

I found a small green snacker, but knew he was not large enough to produce the poop.

img_5503

Ah Ha!    Bad, Bad Larva Brown.  He and his little Green Sidekick were escorted outside.

Go pick on a bigger fern you bullies.

img_5507

I hope little Dragon’s Tail can recover from this shock.

FERN MAMA

My Weed

| Flower Roberts

There is a whole world on one weed in my garden.

img_4192

I did not kill this weed because of a hybrid I fell in love with in Tuscany.

20150929_114604

So when I saw it growing on the bank, I staked it up to compare it with the hybrid.

IMG_2339

What a wonderful weed it has been.

img_4164

This wild Passion vine/Maypop/Passiflora incarnata has been a whole laboratory.

img_4185

There are ants on the pods and stems.

img_4277

 

 

The best part is all the caterpillars of various sizes.

img_4176img_4166

img_4174img_4165

Tiny, shiny, spiky, orange and black caterpillars of Fritillary butterflies.

img_4273

img_4172

I check on this plant every day and find something new.

An added bonus is a beautiful, blue morning glory that grew up into the Passion vine.

img_4173

My daddy’s favorite color of blue, bluebird blue.

img_4163

I have been blessed by this weed.  I am so thankful I did not kill it.

Where would all those lovely caterpillars be?  Nowhere, that’s where.

Follow the weed.

Lovin’ some Larvae

| Flower Roberts

Butterflies do not just hatch from the egg with wings.

IMG_2980
Fritillary Butterfly

They must first go through a larval stage called caterpillar.

img_4027
Variegated Fritillary caterpillar on Passion vine

Then they have to bind themselves up for a while to go through metamorphosis.

While they are wrapped up(pupating) in the chrysalis (not pictured),

all their cells rearrange into a butterfly or moth.  Then they have their wings.

img_3730
Sphinx moth caterpillar on Four o’clocks

Now everybody loves butterflies and colorful moths.

What if we went around killing all the weird and spiky worms in our yards?

img_4015
Fritillary caterpillar after molting

Then there would be no lovely fliers later, because everyone killed them as babies.

img_4024
Gulf Fritillary caterpillar on Passion vine

If you don’t ” love some larvae”, leave them alone.

They are waiting for their wings.

IMG_3146

FLOWER