I've never seen a buckeye egg, just the cats. My book The Life Cycles of Butterflies by Burris & Richards shows a picture of one, and it's green with vertical lines. Butterfly eggs can and do vary in color, though, like giant swallowtail eggs can be anywhere from pale green to dark orange, and pipevine swallowtail eggs can be yellowish to orangey to solid red to burgundy. Yours does look like a butterfly egg, though, so let us know what hatches!

Sherry

They've turned orangy today.

Nicholas

They've hatched I even got to see one hatch. So if you could ID them now that would be great. Here is the egg you may be able to see a tiny hole in the egg.

This post was edited by Cresphontes on Fri, Sep 27, 13 at 20:10

Here are 2 cats the one on the left is just a head out of an egg

Little farther

and farther

Farther

And farther

even farther

By this point it was wriggling so much it was hard to get a pic of

Almost there

At last

Eating the egg shell

So now if you could ID it that would be great.

Thanks, Nicholas

Nicholas,

It's going to be impossible to give you a definite ID until the cats are larger. Most likely they are Buckeye caterpillars since you found them on snapdragons. Your sequence of pictures is great.

Sandy

Those pictures really are fabulous, Nicholas!

They might be buckeyes, but they look more like some type of skipper to me. The egg looks very much like a silver-spotted skipper egg. It's not uncommon for skippers to lay eggs on plants that aren't the proper host plant, and the hatchlings don't usually live. Long-tailed skippers lay eggs on my pipevines sometimes, make their little shelters, but disappear before growing large. I assume it's because they can't find their right host plant?

Here's a picture on the internet made by Sandy of a SSS egg.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: Sandy's Picture of a SSS Egg

And here's Sandy's picture of a SSS hatchling.

Silver spotted skippers normally use members of the pea family as host plants. Here they use my Robinia pseudoacacia trees, also my Amorpha fruticosa bushes.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: Sandy's Picture of a SSS Hatchling

I'm starting to think their buckeyes because they have hair and not as big and black of a head. Thanks a lot though I,ll keep posting them once they're larger.

Nicholas

Please do, Nicholas! I'd like to see how they develop.

I've never seen buckeye eggs or hatchlings - by the time I find them, they're several instars gone, at least, and sometimes I don't find them until they're ready to pupate. They grow fast.

Sherry

They are eating the snap dragon so I absolutely don't think they are skippers.

Nicholas

Nicholas,

Sounds like you have Buckeyes. Never have seen the eggs, but have had caterpillars on snapdragons. How many did you find? Enjoy and document so the rest of us can enjoy vicariously.

Sandy

I found about 20 eggs, I took about 10. BTW if it helps all the eggs were on a flower.

Thanks, Nicholas

Unfortunately I think they're some sort of moth because of the position of the cat in the picture, and the leg count (6 arms and 4 legs) The picture is poor but you can obviously see the arch the body is in. I've seen inch worms and other moth caterpillars in the same position. Am I correct about that I hope not?

Thanks Nicholas

That's definitely an inch worm, which will make a moth - sorry!

Sherry