Caterpillars – Page 18

Silver-spotted Skipper Revisited

With a wingspan of 1.75 to 2.5 inches the Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus) is the largest of the skippers. But being the largest of the skippers doesn’t make it LARGE compared to some moths and butterflies.

The Silver-spotted Skipper is certainly the skipper that I see most often as I check out the trails here on my mountain and enjoy my gardens. As my Dad would say, they seem to be ubiquitous! As adults they use their long tongues or proboscices to slurp up the nectar of blue, red, pink, and purple flowers, and minerals of mud, and even animal feces.

**A Silver-spotted Skipper caterpillar.**

The primary host plant of Silver-spotter Skippers is the Black Locust Tree. Others are plants in the legume (Fabaceae) family.

The young caterpillar creates a “tent” folded in a leaf of its host plant where it spends days, venturing out at night to feed on leaves of the host plant. The host plant, often a Black Locust or Bush Clover, or False Indigo. Older caterpillars will move on to create a larger “tent” for themselves using more than one leaf.

Red-banded Hairstreak

Red-banded Hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops) is native to the southeastern United States. As a caterpillar it has an unusual food source, the fallen leaves of Sumacs, Myrtles, some Oaks and other trees.

A mighty teeny butterfly, its wingspan is 1 inch to 1.25 inches, though you’ll seldom see it with its wings open. As a butterfly, the Red-banded Hairstreak lives just 4 to 10 days. This one, nectaring on a Winged Sumac appears to have had quite rough though short life.

Red-eyed Vireo

The Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus) is a summer resident here at my Virginia cabin. They are constantly reminding me that they’re around, though I seldom see them. Their normal place to be is high up in the tree tops while hunting for their meals, out of sight. Their summer diet is predominantly insects of all sorts, including mosquitoes, flies, caterpillars, as well as spiders and small snails. They’ll also eat plant materials like small fruits, and an occasional flower or leaf bud.

They remind me that they’re up there in the tree tops by singing to me. I use a mnemonic to remember the males’ song. They sing over and over again, “Here I am! Where are you?” Keeping that mnemonic in mind makes it easy to recognize their song. Both the male and the female will participate in their calls which are a Catbird-like “myaah.”

The Red-eyed Vireo spends its breeding season across forests of southern Canada and throughout the woodlands of the northwestern, central, and eastern US. As they migrate they fly long distances at night in groups of up to thirty, sometimes including other species like warblers, tanagers and flycatchers. Their fall migration destination is northern South America and the Amazon Basin.

False Crocus Geometer

This last day of National Moth Week I’m bringing you the False Crocus Geometer (Xanthotype urticaria). They can be found from Nova Scotia to southern British Columbia, south to Colorado and Georgia. Host plants of this moth include Red Osier Dogwood, Ground Ivy, Catnip, Rhodora and Goldenrods. The larvae look much like little branches or twigs of the plants they’re crawling on.

Black and Yellow Lichen Moth

A moth that flies during the day, diurnal. A Black and Yellow Lichen Moth (Lycomorpha pholus). Though the name implies the color yellow you can see that this one, above, is reddish-orange along with the striking black with a subtle blue sheen. Many of this species of moth come in shades of not just yellow but also red and orange along with that black.

Black and Yellow Lichen Moths are found in North America from Ontario and Quebec down into the eastern United States. In my photos you can see these moths enjoying the nectar of Goldenrod and Apple Mint.

The larvae of Black and Yellow Lichen Moths eat lichens and blue-green algae. From these meals they pick up chemical compounds produced by the lichen which provides protection both for the caterpillars but also for the adult moths. Predators beware! These Black and Yellow Lichen Moths are poisonous!

Cherry Scallop Shell Moth

Cherry Scallop Shell Moth (Rheumaptera prunivorata) looking like someone all set to go to the office donned in their favorite warm woolen herringbone business suit. Or perhaps it looks like my tiger-striped kitty that I had when I was little. Tinker. But these wavy stripes are quite distinctive even for a moth. This moth is found in eastern North America from Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario south through the US to Georgia. Its caterpillars eat the leaves of cherry trees though its very favorite leaf is the Black Cherry. The larvae of the Cherry Scallop Shell Moth are gregarious and feed together, seeking shelter in little tents they make by tying leaves together with silk.

Scarlet-winged Lichen Moth

A moth today, in honor of National Moth Week which is July 17th to the 25th. This one, another night flyer who will come to your porch if you leave the light on, Scarlet-winged Lichen Moth (Hypoprepia miniata). Its length is .6 inch to .8 inch. And as the name implies, it’s a mighty pretty moth too. What a great color!

They can be found from British Columbia south through the western side of the Rockies to Arizona, New Mexico and Texas into many portions of eastern North America.

The larvae of this Lichen Moth eats lichens and blue-green algae found on tree trunks and rocks. Larvae overwinter in a thin silky cocoon in leaf litter. Remember to leave that leaf litter be! Don’t disturb the cocoons! Their caterpillars are brown speckled, covered in black spikes. I’ve never seen one of their caterpillars – maybe one day soon.

Curve-toothed Geometer

Another nod to moths in celebrating National Moth Week (July 17-25, 2021). This moth photo was in my immense file of moth images, unidentified. Many of you might know, I love a mystery and last night I looked upon this critter as one of those mysteries. Luck was with me and I was able to figure out that this is a Curve-toothed Geometer (Eutrapela clemataria). A master of camouflage in both adult and larval form. Here, as a moth the camouflage isn’t that effective against the cedar siding, but imagine this moth in a bunch of leaves and you can appreciate how clever the coloring and shading is. The caterpillar is just as ingenious, an inch-worm disguised as a stick. A stick that loves to eat the leaves of many trees. Just a few of those trees: ash, basswood, birch, elm, fir, maple, poplar, and willow.

Lesser Maple Spanworm Moth

Yesterday a dear friend let me know that we’re in the middle of National Moth Week (July 17-25, 2021). I had no idea such a thing existed! But now, with that in mind, I present the Lesser Maple Spanworm Moth (Speranza pustularia). Like many moths, this one is nocturnal and is attracted to porch lights. Their favorite host plant is Red Maple but will settle for other Maple trees, and many others trees like Birch, Poplar, Fir, and Hemlock. After mating females lay their eggs on host tree branches in the fall. Surprisingly those eggs survive through the winter, hatching in late spring or early summer. The caterpillar pupates, or creates a cocoon and takes about ten days to emerge as a moth, at the end of summer. And then the whole process begins again.

Variegated Fritillary

Unlike other Fritillaries, that exclusively use native Violets as their host plant, the Variegated Fritillary depends on many plants as its host plant including those Violets and also Passion Vine, Pansy, Purslane, Mayapple, Flax, and others.

The Variegated Fritillary has a “long” life as an adult compared to some other butterflies, living between two and ten weeks. Some portion of those weeks as a butterfly are spent nectaring at flowers such as Asters, Common Milkweed, Dogbane, Thistles, Coneflowers, Tithonia, and Ironweed.

Variegated Fritillaries are found in South and North America, in moist meadows and woodland edges.

Creamy white, reddish-orange, metallic blue with shiny black hairy spines. Here with the typical Fritillary host plant, a native Violet leaf. So many caterpillars are amazing. This is one of them!