Photos???

my first post kept locking up if I tried to upload a photo.

Looks like a young caterpillar.

lady bug larvas eat a lot more than adult lady bugs.

Steve

Any ideas what’s making all those chewed up leaves???

It is the larva (caterpillar) of the giant swallowtail butterfly; it will eat many times its weignt in leaves. It is most definitely NOT a good guy.

Doesn't look like any of the photos of Giant Swallowtail Butterfly larva I could find!

Leaf cutter bees seems likely from the shape of the damage.

Whatever: my advice is free; but leaf cutter bees make a uniquely circular "bite"; and there is NOTHING in a leaf cutter bee's life cycle that looks anything like a caterpillar.

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Johnmerr, I am certain you are correct. I’m going to torch them

I'm still not certain. I wasn't implying that the larva/caterpillar was anything to do with a leaf cutter bee - but the damage which is fairly circular might be. I don't think the Giant Swallowtail exists in Japan.

Steve

If it is a caterpillar, which is what it appears to be; then it is a swallowtail butterfly...to my knowledge, the ONLY butterfly that lays its eggs on citrus.

Watch it and if it eats citrus leaves then kill it. If you catch it eating aphids then keep it. At its small size It cant eat too much.

Steve

I can't see much detail from that picture on my phone, but after a substantial zoom on a large screen, it does indeed look like the swallowtail caterpillar. Bad guys.