Caterpillar Count

I decided to take a break from propositional logic this morning to stroll through the backyard and butterfly garden to see what caterpillar activity was going on. Flitting about was a Monarch, Gulf Fritillary, a few skippers and a Polydamas Swallowtail.  

I checked first to see if I still had Oleander moth caterpillars.  The neighbor has an oleander tree that is being munched slowly by dozens of these orange and black hairy caterpillars that I identified as larva of the Oleander moth.  The moth is spectacular and I have a few photos of one that flew into my garage a month ago.  It mimics a wasp with its coloring and body shape and is a day flying moth, unlike most that are nocturnal.  The oleander hangs close to our fence and I have seen lots of these critters crawling all over the place on the philodendron and such.  I saw a cluster of what looked like newly hatched babies on my mandevilla underneath the bird feeder.  It appears they are growing and eating the mandevilla..which makes me wonder if it is as toxic as the oleander.

Next, I checked the Passion Vine growing on my white Bird of Paradise.  The vine has done well but has not attracted any Zebra Longwings to lay eggs as I had hoped, it being mostly shady from what I can tell.  The Gulf Fritillaries flock to it and recently have laid probably hundreds of eggs.  Here is a baby, probably only a few days old and then I checked the passion vine on the back wall of the butterfly garden which has a group of very large Gulf Fritillary caterpillars; they look like they are nearly ready to pupate. 

A monarch stopped on the Golden Milkweed, or asclepias, as I am told there is another plant that goes by Milkweed up North that looks nothing like the Asclepias down here.  She was laying eggs and I checked on the caterpillars in various stages of instars on the remaining Asclepias plants in the garden.  Monarchs are voracious eaters and poopers.  They eat the Asclepias in the garden down to nubs and bare branches.

 I also checked the dwarf Cassia.  It is a hot spot of egg activity for the yellow butterflies - Sulphurs, Orange Barred Sulphurs, Cloudless Sulphurs, Sleepy Oranges.  I believe these are Sleepy Orange caterpillars.  I have raised some on the patio before and they come out quite small with the black edge on the top of the inside wing.  The other caterpillar I have seen on this plant is green with black nubs/stripes and a white stripe.  They camouflage quite well with the plant, often appearing to be a part of it. 

Finally, I checked the Dutchman's Pipe Vine plant which I have growing on a wire cage.  As the tender new leaves started coming in, recovering from the last batch of caterpillars, the Polydamas came in and laid her eggs.  These guys are so fun to watch as they are little.  They all hatch and stay in a group together for awhile until they get bigger.