Stumbled on Promethea Cats!
I've been working so much lately, I haven't made up my bed in two days, very uncharacteristic of me - I like neatness and cleanliness! I haven't counted the luna cats, but 50 wouldn't be an exaggeration. Fortunately, about ?7 of them have started their cocoons, and the rest are all about to - YEA! When I gather food (sweetgum leaves) for them, I take a bucket half full of water with me to put the small branches in. I look at each branch briefly before I put it in the water, checking for spiders and other bugs, but it's just a quick glance, since I spray them with the kitchen sprayer in the house. The other day, when I brought my cuttings in the house to clean, I found 2 early instar promethea cats on them! I was really upset, worrying that I had killed them. I didn't know if the leaves they were on were submerged or not. I found them before I used the sprayer, so they didn't get hosed. Anyway, they looked healthy yesterday, but they were still all day long. I was hoping they were just molting. Well, late this afternoon, I found what looked like part of their old skins that they didn't eat, and they crawled underneath their leaves, very much alive. I had put them (on their original leaves) on top of some fresh sweetgum leaves that were part of a little branch, but I brought them some more today, fresh and wet. Here's hoping they start eating tonight! I've only found promethea cocoons (regular prometheas, not sweetbay prometheas) on sassafras and sweetleaf trees, so this is my first experience feeding them sweetgum, but it's a great host plant, stays fresh in water for quite a while, although the lunas ate it so fast, freshness wasn't an issue with them.
Here's a picture of the little prometheas I took yesterday -
I brought in some American ladies to raise last night, went outside with a flashlight! I had noticed that some Gnaphalium pensylvanicum and G. obtusifolium in my garden was eaten nearly to the ground, so I figured rabbits had gotten in or maybe squirrels ate it, I don't know. But I didn't want them eating the plants that are showing AL nests, so I got about ?4 last night The other nests look so small I decided to wait until tomorrow to bring them in - I didn't see any more eaten host plants today.
The red-spotted purples are very small, but growing. Two of the spicebush swallowtails are in the last instar, two are in the last brown instar, and two are very small. There are 4 red admiral chrysalides in the cages, and about ?five or six in the last instars, some appear to be in the "J" but it's hard to tell inside those leaf rolls. None of the thirty or so pipevine swallowtails have emerged, but they should do so soon, and the pipevines are recovering from the and the hundreds more that raised themselves - the vines are making new growth. The regal moth pupae are still waiting..........:)
Sherry
Comments (15)
11 years ago
11 years agoThanks so much, msmorningsong!
The prometheas are eating and pooping, which is the essence of being a caterpillar! :)
My first spicebush swallowtail has purged, so I should get a chrysalis soon.
I'm wondering how I'll feed the American lady cats, since just about every cudweed in the garden has a nest or two on it. 'Guess I'll have to hit the roads.
MANY more lunas are cocooning, what a relief!
I found another red-spotted purple hatchling. There are other eggs on the same little tree, so, either they are duds or she (or another female) has come back and laid more.
My morning glory, moonflower and Mexican sunflower seeds are coming up - 'looking forward to growing these plants!
There's what I think is a ?lacewing on the front of a cage on the porch with what look like eggs, bright red orange ones, on its body. I've paid admission to a bug forum, and tonight I'll post about it (hopefully the man in charge will answer my question) but I've got to go to Hattiesburg this afternoon. I'll upload the picture here, and if anybody knows what this is, please let me know.
Sherry
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I've put a tall (for a cage) branch of sweetgum in a container for the promethea cats, so it'll be sort of like a tree to them. I made the branch cutting down below the new growth, so it'd stay fresh in the left-overs container.
They've molted simultaneously both times, even resuming eating at the exact same time
Here's a picture of one of them -
Sherry - 11 years ago
- 11 years ago
It looks like one of the promethea caterpillars is finally beginning to make its hanging cocoon -
It'll be interesting to watch them make them!Sherry
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msmorningsong