Congrats, Miss Sherry! I am so jealuous that you are getting so many butterflies and cats! Enjoy them for all of us!

Oh, they are the cutest cats, MissSherry, but I understand not wanting to disturb them. I'm so thrilled you're finding them on your spicebush now, because I recall that you were concerned whether they would use it or not.

And, hey, BTW, I KNOW they'll be better off with you raising them!

Susan

Congratulations on your Spicebush cats, Sherry! I would love to get some here. I bought 5 little spicebushes this year off of ebay and I think only 2 are going to make it. I swear I didn't have a whole lot of luck with things from there. Those are the only plants that I bought; everything else was seeds. Some germinated and some didn't. I went on there for the convenience, like one-stop shopping, but from now on if I want anything I'll get it from the online sites that have been recommended on here. I can't imagine wantint too much more, though, because I got mostly everything I want this year.

We live next to a woods and I'm not sure if there are any spicebushes growing in there or not. I never really knew such a thing existed until I joined the forum last year. I also didn't know about the cute caterpillar that eats them and sassafras. There are also sassafras trees in the woods. As a matter of fact, when I was mowing up along the woods, I saw a tiny tree that I think is a sassafras tree. Of course, I mowed around it. I got lots of Spicebush Swallowtail butterflies here last year, so they must have a food source around here somewhere. I think I'm jealous that you have the cats. ;-)
Cathy

Check the sassafras, Cathy - I bet you'll find some cats! There are lots of cats on sassafras on my property, but the only way I'm going to raise more cats is to put up more cages - I finally had to throw away two of the covers for two of my reptarian cages, because the zippers were completely broken. I'm going to e-mail Educational Science where I got them and see if they sell replacement covers - the PVC frames are fine, it's the covers that get all the abuse. I've got some bridal veil material, and I may try to may a covering out of it for at least one of the cages.
There are so many American ladies here, I've had to just start passing them by - there's no way I can raise this many ALs! I wish the GFs and VFs would show up!
MissSherry

Sherry, This tree was only about a foot or so high and didn't have many leaves on it. I didn't really stop to look at the leaves closely but none of them looked eaten. Well, actually, I don't think that there could be any on them this early if I haven't even seen any Spicebush butterflies here yet. Wait a minute, I'm starting to get confused. I wish I would read more about butterflies. You'd probably think I'd know more by now, but my head can only absorb so much in a year's time. :-D I'm here thinking that I couldn't have cats yet because I didn't see any butterflies here yet. So straighten me out here. For me to have Spicebush cats on any sassafras or spicebush around here, there would have already had to have been the butterflies here this spring to lay eggs, right? I haven't seen any at all of that kind, but I have seen Tiger Swallowtails here the past two weeks. Now, since most butterflies don't migrate like the Monarchs (actually, I don't know what other ones do migrate), the butterflies that I see here would just probably just recently come out of their pupas that overwintered in the area, right? Or not? Being that they aren't that old themselves, would they be laying eggs here already? I really am only extremely familiar with Monarchs since I raised them last summer, but I didn't have any other cats here. I don't really know when exactly to expect cats to show up here other than Monarch cats. Last year I saw my first Monarch cat on one of my milkweed plants on August 9. It was already fairly big. My eyes got accustomed to looking for cats and I was eventually finding them when they were just teeny tiny at the tops of the plants.

That's too bad about your covers for your cages. That's what I'd do, ask them if they have replacement covers and if not, then I would make my own. I plan on using tulle to put over a laundry sorter. I haven't made the final product yet, but I plan on wrapping it around the pipe and putting velcro on the material to hold it on. It might be one of my experiments that fail, but I have to try it and see. I just hope that the Monarchs hold off awhile on laying eggs because I'll be planting my garden for awhile yet since it will take weeks yet to get ready to plant (I'm expanding it...killed the grass and am removing the sod by hand with a trowel). I also have lots of work to do yet on my butterfly cage that I built. High winds a few weeks ago ripped some of the panels apart when I had it sitting outside after I had given it its first coat of paint. After it's put back together and given a second coat of paint, then I have to put the screen on it. I hope you aren't behind like I am or I bet you have a headache too.

Oh, I hope that I can get American Ladies here someday. I just acquired some Pussytoes this year from a very wonderful person and I think they are so pretty. I just planted them in bigger containers until I get a spot cleared for them outside. If you lived in my state and I'd have enough food, I'd gladly take some of those ALs off of your hands. What host plants do you have for them and the GFs and VFs?

So should I wait until I start seeing Spicebush butterflies around here before I start checking the sassafras? I'd imagine that the leaves are up pretty high on the big trees and I wouldn't be able to see most of them way up there. I hope they don't go up too high. If I would find cats within the next month or so, those would become butterflies this year yet, wouldn't they? I guess now that I know a lot about Monarchs, I should start learning about these other species since I'm getting into this more and planting various types of host plants to attract them here.

Cathy

I love those SBS cats with their fake eyes! Took a nice pic of one last year but don't know how to post them on here.
Saw the first SBS adult last week,but so far no eggs or cats.BTW,they seem to prefer laying eggs fairly low,like less than 6 feet from the ground.

Miss Sherry - I recently got a cage that a neighbor of mine was going to trhrow away. It is built strongly with a wood frame but the wire is about 1/2 in square wide, too big for cats. DH said we could cover it with pool screen mesh. We have to make a door for it as the other people had it mounted against a window where they raised finches and there was another cage on the exterior of the window, in other words, it was only 3 sided. Anyway, maybe you could figure out a way to use the pool screen mesh. It is a pretty close woven screen and very pliable.

Cathy, Dan is right - spicebush swallowtails lay their eggs down low, and they drive me crazy the way they use such small plants! Sassafras colonizes, so there are always lots of 3' high suckers sprouting up, and that's where you'll find probably 50% of the cats. The spicebush that I found the cats on is about that high. It does indeed take an adult butterfly to lay the eggs - you may or may not have seen the adults, depending on how many there are of them in your area and how much time you spend outside looking for them. Spicebush swallowtails are not migratory, so the eggs/cats would come from locals. I don't know what your weather has been like, but surely the adults would have emerged from their chrysalids by now!
Tiger swallowtails lay most of their eggs up high. I've found one mid instar cat so far this year - I usually find 2 or 3 each year, unless they lay eggs on my ptelea trifoliatas, which they occasionally do - I've found as many as 5 tiger eggs on ptelea in the past.
The local ALs use cudweed/gnaphalium pensylvanicum (you should have that one!) and a narrow leaf type of cudweed that's either g. obtusifolium or g. falcatum, I'm not sure which. I find most of the cats on the broader leaf g. pensylvanicum. There are many other host plants for ALs, and they're all closely related to cudweed, like pussytoes and various everlastings - they all have some whitish or silvery color to the undersides of their leaves.
GFs and VFs use passionvines here. I've got p. incarnata, p. biflora, p. caerulea, p. lutea, and p. 'Incense' and p. 'Lady Margaret' which are both hybrids of p. incarnata, the favorite host passionvine of both types of frit. VFs use common violets when there're too many GFs eating the vines - I assume that VFs are the link between true fritillaries and longwings, since they use the host plants for both.
Spicebush swallowtail cats cut and fold over a leaf when they're in their early instars, so look for those - they make the rolled leaf shelters when they're in their later instars.
Spicebush cats really are cute, Dan!
MissSherry

Mary, pool screen mesh sounds like a good idea - I may use that. I e-mailed Educational Science, they said they DO have replacement covers and that their web site should show them, then I couldn't access their web site to order some and couldn't get them on the phone either - their line was always busy. I'm going to try calling them tomorrow and see if they do or don't have replacement covers. If they don't have them, I'll look into pool screen - I know what you're talking about, because it covers the lanais around my daughter's pool.
The spicebush cats both came out of their leaf rolls today when it got dark outside during a rain. I got my camera and made this picture with one of them on the far left - Janet, if you see this, the picture shows a RSP pupating and a RSP chrysalis.
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MissSherry

I would prefer not to cut off all the leaves of the little spicebush I found the cats on in order to get them to maturity, so I put a sassafras leaf in a water pick, and put it right in the middle of the spicebush leaves. One of the cats ate a little off the end, and then made a leaf roll in it. Sassafras and spicebush leaves must be very nearly the same chemically.
MissSherry

I am GREEN with envy! I had a couple spicebush cats on my small spicebush last year, spiders ate them both. The bush has grown well, but no cats. Also, how do I know what sex my spicebush is, and do I need another one?

MissSherry says: "VFs use common violets when there're too many GFs eating the vines - ..."

I'd like to add to that by saying that in our more northern zones, where the VFs are here BEFORE the passion vine comes up, the VFs will apparently then use the common blue violet in its stead. The VFs have never used my passiflora 'Incense' at all, but that could be because of the proliferation of Gulf Frits.

Oh, yeah, I am GREEN with envy, too, Paul! I'd love to have those gorgeous spicebush cats. My new plants are leafing out nicely now, and seem much healthier than the ones I got last year were. But, I think it had to do with location, location, location. I never should have planted them where I did the first time. I doubt I'll have any for awhile until the shrubs are well established.

I did notice that my persea borbonia is finally starting to grow, as is the magnolia virginiana. Took them awhile to get going.

Susan

My passionvines start making new growth in March, but now that I think about it, it'd take longer where you are, Susan. The VFs are usually here by now, chewing on p. incarnata - wish they'd show up.
By the way, the spicebush cat that's on the sassafras leaf is continuing to eat it like it doesn't know the difference - that's good news for the little spicebush!
MissSherry

MissSherry, you've got a great crop of caterpillars there! I can't wait for my fist spicebush.

Cathy, there have bee Spicebush Swallowtails reported here in CT in the last week or so, so you should start seeing them.

They do indeed like the small shoots, especially those that sprout from the base after a plant has be cut down. Last year I followed a SBS thinking it was a PVS at my special PVS spot, and watched her lay eggs on a shoot just inches above the ground. Then when I went to a thicket up the street to cut leaves for the hatchlings, I found more eggs there, also less that 3 feet up. This year they cut down that thicket so there will probably be lots of tender shoots there now!

They are such cool cats to raise with all their instars looking so different!

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Forgive me for the picture posting mania...I just got it working again...

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Yep, that's what they look like, Maryann!
There are really going to be a lot of spicebush swallowtails around here, unless some catastrophe befalls them - I've been finding leaf rolls with cats in them on just about every little sassafras bush.
MissSherry

Are they as voracious as the Pipevines? I hope I don't get any yet because I don't think there's enough spicebush available to feed but maybe one of them. But, they are leafing out so nicely, and the leaves are getting larger and larger.

Maryann, they are just darlin' cats! Glad you got your photos going again.

Susan

They aren't the big eaters that PVSs are, Susan. Of course, whenever you have pipevine cats, you've got a horde, whereas spicebush cats come singly - I really don't know how much one PVS cat eats!
MissSherry

I recall someone saying that it would take 25 A. serpentaria to feed one cat, so I assume it's a lot, MissSherry! LOL! Lil pigs!