According to UF, that's what they look like. Scroll down on this page.

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/bfly/polydamas.htm

Those do resemble UF's pix - lucky you!

A big problem I have with butterfly larvae in hot weather is the wasps that prey on them.

Wasps, Brown Anole lizards, Milkweed assassin bugs, Predatory Stinkbugs, UGGGGGHHH!

Well, those eggs are in an enclosure now so maybe in several weeks I'll have Polydamus Swallowtails to release!

Anna

Not sure if those eggs are Polydamas or not, but the A. Tomentosa or Wooly Pipevine is the absolute best for attracting both the Polydamas and the Pipevine butterflies for me. I now see both of these butterflies pretty much daily if I spend time outside.

I have also had success with the A. Fimbriata. In the past the Pipevines have really liked this vine. I have several growing in pots now, but I haven't had any eggs or cats yet--or at least that I have seen. I have to prop them up, so that they can grow better and be seen by the butterflies.

I've never raised any polydamas swallowtails, but the color of pipevine swallowtail eggs is quite variable, ranging from yellow to dark red and many shades in between. It could be pipevine swallowtails, but maybe they're polydamas.

Sherry

They hatched today and I still can't tell.

Polydamus Cats?

Pipevine Cats.

Time will tell.

Tom, where do you get the A. Fimbriata? The A. Tomentosa seems to like it here. The A. Macrophylla not so much. One Mac has died completely and the other 2 probably won't last the summer. I ordered 3 each from Joyful Butterfly in SC.

Anna

Yes, Ana, they look very much like Polydamas cats. They will become darker in a few days. Enjoy. They could be Pipevine, but if you saw a Polydamas near the vine they are probably Polys. The Polydamas cats eat like crazy and grow very large if they have enough food. The Pipevines are smaller and darker, pretty much black.

I don't remember where I got the Fibriata. I know I purchased the first few Tomentosas from Mail Order Natives, an online nursery that is somewhere near Jacksonville.

I believe I have the Macrophylia or some other Dutch Pipevine. Only the Polydamas do well on the ones I have. The Pipevine cats die on it.

I believe I was able to get some seeds from the Fibriata and plant some with success. They seem to like the shade.

Here's the latest on the Polydamus cats. At least I think these are Polydamus Swallowtail caterpillars because they look different from Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars to me.

Here is one just after molting. It's the first of this molt.

At this stage they don't seem to be as big eaters as the pipevine cats. Thank goodness!

Anna

I've never seen pipevine swallowtails look like that, so they must be polydamus indeed!

Sherry

Here is the photo of molting that would not load i the earlier post.

Anna

Most of the Polydamas cats that I see are rusty colored. Here is an example. The Pipevine are normally more black. Here is an example.

It's rather confusing since the shape and form seems to be Polydamas, but the color is more like Pipevine. Like Sherry, I would guess Polydamas. You have seen the Pipevine cats, Ana, no? Do these seem different?

The Polydamas cats, in my experience get bigger and are very hungry eaters. I have some things in my garden that are eating both of these butterflies eggs and cats. I can't find any cats, but I do find leaves that are chewed and there are some of both that I see flying around every day.

Great photos, Tom. It will be interesting to see what they look like as they develop. I think the photo of the Polydamus is of a full grown caterpillar. These babies definitely don't look like that. It's the color of the spikes on their back and the color of the head that is different from the Pipevine at the same age as far as I can tell.

Anna

Tom, your pictures didn't show up on my computer. :(

Sherry

One thing I've noticed that has convinced me these are not Pipevine cats, these cats stick out their osmeteria (as MissSherry says "stick out their tongues) at the slightest nudge. The Pipevine cats never produced their osmeteria with regular handling during feeding and cleaning. They are very laid back that way.

Also, so far, these cats aren't eating nearly as much as the Pipevine cats. Which is a relief with my limited amount of pipe vine.

Anna

Anna, if you look at the head of the one on the right in the last photo, you can see what I was talking about when I mentioned that their heads look funny when they molt. I guess they're pushing their heads forward to shed the skin.

Congrats - you've got two types of aristolochia swallowtails!

Sherry

That's right and the Polydamus's head is a different color. Good catch, Sherry!!

Anna

I am raising my polydamas on a. trilobata. I had to spend several hours reading about the different kinds of Dutchman's Pipes and the different kinds of swallowtails that use them to make triple-sure my a. elegans (or gigantea) wasn't going to kill my babies. I moved them to the trilobata just in case. They ate my plant and got obese. I relocated a few to elegans and they just disappeared, but it is an enormous plant and they probably were hiding from me while they enjoyed the smorgasbord. I am pretty sure my cats will thrive on both types of pipevines. I've discovered a chrysalis on my clothesline and one under a tibouchinia leaf.

Anyways, I just wanted to let everyone here know that I have lots of seeds from my a. trilobabta and will send some out to anyone who wants to send me a SASE.

Thanks for all the info you guys are posting!

Susie

Hi SusieQsie. Thank you so much for writing your post about Aristolochea Trilobata. I have run out of A. Tomentosa and my Polydamas cats need more food. A. Tomentosa is not readily available in this part of FL so I needed an alternative. I found some large A. Trilobata at a local nursery. This is one of the plants I purchased.

Here's the thing, the cats aren't eating it. They've actually moved up the walls of the enclosure away from it.

Here is the current size of the cats.

I am concerned because I have been feeding them the newest fuzziest tiny new leaves off the Tomentosa because that was all that was left. For the last 2 days I've been trying to feed them sections of the vine itself. The Pipevine ST cats I also raised (and just got them all to chrysalis last week), ate the Tomentosa vine (not leaves) just fine but the Polydamas did not eat the vine.

So, I figured the Polydamas had to be starving and I expected them to just munch down on the A. Trilobata, but they have not started in the past 4 hours. I'm not sure what to think.

The cats have been raised up on the lower half of their bodies, waving back and forth like they are trying to detect a scent or understand the change in their environment. But they haven't started to eat the new food.

There are 17 cats in this enclosure and none of them are eating. Could they be sick from something else? Is a couple of days of less than optimal food enough to start a death spiral? They have never eaten like the Pipevine cats (which are ravenous creatures, like Monarchs), could the Tomentosa not have been good for them? Is it bad to change the type of Aristolochea after 2 weeks (they hatched on 7 July)? In the wild wouldn't they find a new plant if they ran out of food?

I don't know what to think. I just don't want to lose my first Polydamas cats to bad food. :(

Any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Anna

So sorry, Anna! Cats frequently won't accept new food, even though it's closely related to what they were eating. Are there any nubs or stems left of the tomentosa that they could eat?

Sherry

Sherry, UGHHHHHHH that is disappointing news. I have plenty of Tomentosa vine but no leaves. And the Polydamas are not really eating the vine. I occasionally see one chewing on it but mostly it just sits there in the tubes. Now, if Polydamas are small eaters then it may be working but everything others have said is that Polydamas are big eaters???

Anna

I have decided to move the one remaining normal Polydamas cat out to what's left of the A. Tomentosa vine. The others are not doing well (I had to quarantine most of them) and many have died. I'm not really sure it's related to the food. The ones that have died have actually died in a pool of brown liquid. I'm thinking they could be infected with a bad bacterium or virus. They are deflated and leaking fluids. Who knows?

I have at least planted 2 large, very leafy, A. Trilobata vines in the yard in order to have enough food for the next Polydamas cats.

Anna

So sorry, Anna! It's hard to provide enough aristolochia for the caterpillars that eat it.

Sherry

When I was raising Monarchs, I had ran out of milkweed.....went and purchased more (on-line and at an organic nursery) and found out that the nursery was not 100% organic :( and all the cats got sick, but soon recovered after giving milkweed from different purchase. Also, the milkweed bought online, was bad (lady said no chemicals in garden), and all the cats died like right away :((( I have also learned that some large nurseries will have insecticide and plant food rigged up to facet where the garden hose is, and as they water, all plants there are feed and treated (with chemicals) as they get watered.

So sorry to hear about your situation!

That’s a huge heartbreaker!

One of the fat cats on my trilobata turned into a puddle of goo which I discovered on the sidewalk under the arch the vines are growing on. I started to panic, but then I saw all the fat healthy cats munching away. So since all but two have gone on to make each chrysalis, I figured that maybe the untimely death was caused by a wasp.

I know that doesn’t solve your mystery, Anna, as you probably have a wasp-proof enclosure for your cats. I wish I could help with an answer because I know how it feels to lose them and not know why.

I’m pretty sure you are doing everything you can to give them a chance at becoming butterflies so don’t give up!

~Susie

Here is the Survivor! I put it out yesterday and it's still there. Hopefully, one little cat can find enough food on this denuded vine to make it!

Anna

I'm getting a second chance to raise Polydamas cats!!! I found these on the A. tomentosa vines when I returned home.

They've already got their stripes, so they must be pretty far along. There were 15 cats and I brought them all in. This time I should have enough A. tomentosa to get them to pupation!! I'm so excited!!

There are eggs on the A. trilobata along with Pipevine Swallowtail eggs. Still time for butterflies!!! I brought them in too, just in case Hurricane Dorian heads our way.

Anna

Those are some cool pictures of some cool looking cats, Anna! Congrats on having them!

Sherry

Congrats, Ana. They look very healthy. The tomentosa vines are great once they get going.

The Polydamas (Battus) lay eggs on my Giant Pipevine routinely. They grow up just fine and return to lay their eggs.

Finally!!! The successful eclosion of Polydamas Swallowtails!! I had the first 5 butterflies of 14 chrysalides emerge today.

I am very excited. These were all raised on Wooly Pipevine.

I tried raising several cats I found on A. trilobata and they all died. I'm thinking cats on A. trilobata can only eat the very young maroon colored parts of the plant. Maybe this is the case until they get much older and bigger. It seemed introducing the more mature green leaves of A. trilobata even at the 3rd instar was too toxic. Not sure. I will have to do more work on this.

I'm just very happy to have all these Polydamas chrysalides and now butterflies from A. tomentosa (Wooly Pipevine)!!! :)

Anna