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Hobby Forum Index » Gardens » Swallowtail caterpillar in my garden...
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| zxcvbob... |
 Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:58 pm |
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I found it yesterday on a volunteer dill plant that grew up in the pole
beans. I thought it was a Monarch; they look very similar. Today it
has almost doubled in size already, and the dill plant is just about
gone. I might need to move it to another dill plant, or that 5 foot
tall carrot plant that is blooming. I don't know if they like to be
moved... It's not gonna eat my beans if I leave it alone and it runs
out of dill, will it? The beans would be a nice protected place for it
to pupate. It's odd that there's just one.
Bob |
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| Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 11:21 pm |
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On Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:58:01 -0500, zxcvbob <zxcvbob at (no spam) charter.net>
wrote:
Quote: I found it yesterday on a volunteer dill plant that grew up in the pole
beans. I thought it was a Monarch; they look very similar. Today it
has almost doubled in size already, and the dill plant is just about
gone. I might need to move it to another dill plant, or that 5 foot
tall carrot plant that is blooming. I don't know if they like to be
moved... It's not gonna eat my beans if I leave it alone and it runs
out of dill, will it? The beans would be a nice protected place for it
to pupate. It's odd that there's just one.
Bob
Dill or parsley is the ticket for for them.
I only had one this year. Is this indicative of climatological and
environmental changes?
If it is running out of forage, break off the branch it upon which it
is feasting, and lay it amongst the new dill.
It won't go to beans.
Be sure to give it a love stroke and get it's orange horns aroused.
Then give those horns a sniff or gently touch the appendages and, uh,
sniff yer fingers. Ya' gotta do it...seriously. It's the way to learn
a bit more about them and their defenses. ;-)
I have to do it every year. Just did it last week.
Charlie |
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| enigma... |
| Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 2:42 am |
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zxcvbob <zxcvbob at (no spam) charter.net> wrote in
news:6dg3doF2d0fvU1 at (no spam) mid.individual.net:
Quote: I found it yesterday on a volunteer dill plant that grew up
in the pole beans. I thought it was a Monarch; they look
very similar. Today it has almost doubled in size already,
and the dill plant is just about gone. I might need to
move it to another dill plant, or that 5 foot tall carrot
plant that is blooming. I don't know if they like to be
moved... It's not gonna eat my beans if I leave it alone
and it runs out of dill, will it? The beans would be a
nice protected place for it to pupate. It's odd that
there's just one.
it will prefer dill if it spent it's first couple instars on
dill. it may eat the carrot (or Queen Anne's Lace), but i've
found they really prefer the original food plant they started
on. it won't touch your beans.
swallowtails deposit eggs one at a time on several different
plants in a 50-100' radius (maybe even wider. i am basing this
on my observatios in my yard, which has a lot of swallowtail
host plants). it's a good survival stratagy since only one
caterpiller per food plant means they're both harder for
predators to find & also likely to each have enough to eat.
does your caterpiller have the stinky orange horns that pop
out when touched?
lee
--
Last night while sitting in my chair
I pinged a host that wasn't there
It wasn't there again today
The host resolved to NSA. |
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| enigma... |
| Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 2:44 pm |
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zxcvbob <zxcvbob at (no spam) charter.net> wrote in
news:6dif6nF2p4tfU1 at (no spam) mid.individual.net:
Quote: I couldn't find him this afternoon. He's either moved on,
or been eaten by a bird. I looked on the nearby (very
nearby) dill plants too.
if he was around 1.25" long when you saw him, he's gone now
because he's pupated 
it's unlikely a bird ate it, as the stinky horns also taste
bad. my chickens leave them alone & not much gets by them.
lee
--
Last night while sitting in my chair
I pinged a host that wasn't there
It wasn't there again today
The host resolved to NSA. |
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| zxcvbob... |
| Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 7:31 pm |
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enigma wrote:
Quote: zxcvbob <zxcvbob at (no spam) charter.net> wrote in
news:6dg3doF2d0fvU1 at (no spam) mid.individual.net:
I found it yesterday on a volunteer dill plant that grew up
in the pole beans. I thought it was a Monarch; they look
very similar. Today it has almost doubled in size already,
and the dill plant is just about gone. I might need to
move it to another dill plant, or that 5 foot tall carrot
plant that is blooming. I don't know if they like to be
moved... It's not gonna eat my beans if I leave it alone
and it runs out of dill, will it? The beans would be a
nice protected place for it to pupate. It's odd that
there's just one.
it will prefer dill if it spent it's first couple instars on
dill. it may eat the carrot (or Queen Anne's Lace), but i've
found they really prefer the original food plant they started
on. it won't touch your beans.
swallowtails deposit eggs one at a time on several different
plants in a 50-100' radius (maybe even wider. i am basing this
on my observatios in my yard, which has a lot of swallowtail
host plants). it's a good survival stratagy since only one
caterpiller per food plant means they're both harder for
predators to find & also likely to each have enough to eat.
does your caterpiller have the stinky orange horns that pop
out when touched?
lee
I couldn't find him this afternoon. He's either moved on, or been eaten
by a bird. I looked on the nearby (very nearby) dill plants too.
Bob |
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| zxcvbob... |
| Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 8:02 pm |
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enigma wrote:
Quote: zxcvbob <zxcvbob at (no spam) charter.net> wrote in
news:6dif6nF2p4tfU1 at (no spam) mid.individual.net:
I couldn't find him this afternoon. He's either moved on,
or been eaten by a bird. I looked on the nearby (very
nearby) dill plants too.
if he was around 1.25" long when you saw him, he's gone now
because he's pupated
I thought that might be the case, because that's how big it was
yesterday. They don't bury in the ground do they?
Bob |
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| enigma... |
| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 2:36 am |
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zxcvbob <zxcvbob at (no spam) charter.net> wrote in
news:6dih1fF2oh76U1 at (no spam) mid.individual.net:
Quote: enigma wrote:
zxcvbob <zxcvbob at (no spam) charter.net> wrote in
news:6dif6nF2p4tfU1 at (no spam) mid.individual.net:
I couldn't find him this afternoon. He's either moved
on, or been eaten by a bird. I looked on the nearby
(very nearby) dill plants too.
if he was around 1.25" long when you saw him, he's gone
now
because he's pupated :)
I thought that might be the case, because that's how big it
was yesterday. They don't bury in the ground do they?
some do, yes.
lee
--
Last night while sitting in my chair
I pinged a host that wasn't there
It wasn't there again today
The host resolved to NSA. |
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| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:03 pm |
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I've been watching two similar caterpillars on some parley we have in
a pot on our deck.
One caterpillar was larger than the other and just yesterday I noticed
it crawling out of the pot. I followed it across the deck (it "jumped"
off the edge) and it crawled into a dense planting of climbing
hydrangea. I expect it will be pupating in there.
After another day of eating, the second caterpillar is almost as big
as the first one, so I'm expecting it to crawl off soon.
I was lucky to catch the first one in the act of making his get away.
-- michael |
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| Leon Fisk... |
| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:30 pm |
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On Wed, 9 Jul 2008 12:36:40 +0000 (UTC), enigma
<enigma at (no spam) evil.net> wrote:
Quote: zxcvbob <zxcvbob at (no spam) charter.net> wrote in
news:6dih1fF2oh76U1 at (no spam) mid.individual.net:
enigma wrote:
zxcvbob <zxcvbob at (no spam) charter.net> wrote in
news:6dif6nF2p4tfU1 at (no spam) mid.individual.net:
I couldn't find him this afternoon. He's either moved
on, or been eaten by a bird. I looked on the nearby
(very nearby) dill plants too.
if he was around 1.25" long when you saw him, he's gone
now
because he's pupated :)
I thought that might be the case, because that's how big it
was yesterday. They don't bury in the ground do they?
some do, yes.
lee
There are several types of swallowtail butterflies. I
suspect you have a Black Swallowtail though. Maybe:
http://home.att.net/~larvalbugbio/swallowtails.html
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=1356
http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/cimg266.html
If so the scientific name is "Papilio polyxenes asterius".
Use that and a search engine and you can find a lot more
info.
--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
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