It's curled up, so it's hard to be sure, but it looks like a red admiral caterpillar. Are there any nettles nearby? That's what red admiral caterpillars eat. Red admirals are beautiful, medium sized butterflies -

I'll see if I can find a decent picture of a red admiral caterpillar.

Sherry

Black RA Cat

Miss Sherry, that could very well be. A red admiral flew through our front porch this summer, but only once. I'm not sure if there is nettle around but if that is a Red Admiral I surely will get nettle and plant it soon. I'll try to find it on the internet now.

I'm scouring the web but don't seem to find any cats that look like that, but still trying.

Carolyn

You can get seeds for false nettle,boehmeria at Prairie Moon Nursery. They also sell Pilea pumila, another nettle family member that's an attractive ground cover and Red Admiral host plant. I grow stinging nettle too, but if you get stung, it can last all day.

Thanks Jay, Prairie Moon is one of my favorites. Headed there now.

Hey, Prairie Moon was selling the clearweed nettle, Pilea pumila. I just checked, and they're not offering it anymore. You can buy seeds for it on Amazon and Ebay, but they are pricey, and only offer small quantities.

Yep, I couldn't find it at Prairie Moon. I'll catch it on Amazon or EBay. Thanks.

My son found another Red Admiral caterpillar on the ground on a piece of grass. Could they have been dislodged from something they were on by the wind and rain ? Or are they

ordinarily found on the ground ?

That's a buckeye caterpillar. Their host plants are mostly members of the snapdragon family, and they're low growing. Your son probably needs to put the caterpillar back where he found it, not knowing if it's ready to make its chrysalis yet or not. Here's a picture of a buckeye cat I took a few years ago -

They use Agalinis here, A. fasciculata as I recall. The native Agalinis have pink flowers that look like snapdragons and grow roadside.

Buckeye butterfly -

Sherry

That really does look like it. Yes he definitely did put it right back there. We had an enormous amount of Buckeyes in the butterfly garden on the tall verbenas recently and that would be really logical that it was one. He found it quite a distance away from the garden, down by our pond. Thank you so much for the correction

Carolyn

The Buckeye cats also feed on plantains, Plantago species. They are common weeds in a lot of lawns. They are related to snapdragons.

These Baltimore Checkerspots also use plantains for host plants, and turtlehead too.

Ha ha, Jay. I planted turtlehead for them. Except they are not in my range. Close though. Got a little overboard a few years ago without fact checking first.

Turtlehead is still a nice plant. Maybe the hummingbirds are enjoying it. Are you far enough from the coast to not be affected by the hurricane?

We will be fine. All the hotel rooms are booked for the people from the coast. The only time we ever had a problem was years ago with the tropical depression I think was Jerry. We had a river through our yard, it went right through our goldfish pond. So my husband, in laws and I walked barefoot around in the middle of the night catching the fish in our rubber boots.

Good luck with the coming weather, Iris!

Those checkerspots are GORGEOUS, Jay!

Sherry