I ordered three sugarberry trees (Celtis laevigata) this past spring and potted them up in big containers. I don't plant trees in spring, because if I plant a small tree or other plant in or near the woods, the armadillos will usually dig them up and/or deer will eat the leaves. They need some size on them to take good root and thrive. I've kept them in my fenced-in garden, just took them out recently. While I was watering them a few hours ago, I found question mark caterpillars all over them! I had bought these trees mainly for snouts (I just saw my first snout this past spring) but I'm thrilled to have QMs on them! They usually lay their eggs on my hops vines or false nettles. I planted some winged elms for them some years ago, but I've never found a cat on the elms.

I looked on the hops vines and found one, earlier instar QM cat - 'couldn't find any on the false nettles, but then there are so many of those, I could have missed them. I brought in three cats on one branch to test sugarberry to see how it holds up in water - so far, it looks perfect. I'll probably bring in the rest of them this evening.

I've only raised late season QMs a few times, and the last time was long ago. Some of the butterflies had the common, summer coloring, but most of them had the beautiful coral or brick red, winter coloring. These cats have red heads, mostly, some have black heads, so maybe there will be two different coloring in the adults, also!

Here's a picture I got of one of them -

Sherry