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ID this Caterpillar
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Posted by piamik2 (My Page) on Tue, Sep 6, 05 at 17:41
| Couldn't find this in my insect guide. I noticed about a dozen of them munching on a ground cover. Over the course of the last 6 days they've really eaten a lot, and perhaps something has been eathing them as well, as yesterday I could only find 2 and today I'm down to 1. |
Image link: ID this Caterpillar (42 k)
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: ID this Caterpillar
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Here is a link that might be useful: Black Swallowtail cat
RE: ID this Caterpillar
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| That looks exactly like what I've got. And, a few weeks ago I saw what I thought were some sort of Swallowtail butterflies at my flower boxes. Again, my book did not provided an exact match. Thanks for your help. |
RE: ID this Caterpillar
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| Out of curiosity, what were they feeding on? These caterpillars are pretty plant specific. |
RE: ID this Caterpillar
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They are thoroughly enjoying a ground cover called
Aegopodium podagraria 'Variegata' (Variegated Bishop's Weed). My husband was considering getting rid of it, but if the caterpillars/butterflies like it so well, I'm inclined to keep it. |
RE: ID this Caterpillar
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| The black swallowtail has been documented using that plant genus, it is in the parsley family. |
RE: ID this Caterpillar
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| So, can anyone guess where all these caterpillars might have disappeared to? I hope some creature didn't eat all of them. |
RE: ID this Caterpillar
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| They have either crawled off to pupate or they have become part of the food chain. |
RE: ID this Caterpillar
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| Thanks, rhizo, for responding. I was hoping against hope that there was a possibility that at least some of them might have survived. I just didn't know whether they were likely to stay put, or pupate elsewhere. |
RE: ID this Caterpillar
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| The one in your picture looked pretty big. If they were fat and chubby perhaps they crawled off to pupate. They can travel a long ways, in caterpillar terms, to do that. Thanks for the info, I never knew they could use bishop's weed as a host! |
RE: ID this Caterpillar
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| I was doing a yahoo pic search to id exactly the same caterpiller and found this old thread. So what is it? Anyone know? I found another pic that was close but mine has no orange. Just green, yellow and black. Mine is eating my dill and he is welcome to as much as he wants. the dill flowers aren't half a beautiful as he is. What a wonderful bug! He will crawl up one of the leaf-spines and eat it from the tip -- munch munch munch. He has been there since yesterday. I moved him from a small plant to a large one. Well if I find out, I will post it. |
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