Black swallowtail / host plant question?

14 years ago

I found two black swallowtail caterpillars on a plant that looks like wild carrot (Daucus carota). The plant is about 6 feet tall, but Ohio Perennial Weed Guide says "Poison hemlock grows nearly 10 feet tall compared with wild carrot that reaches 3 feet or less."

Is poison hemlock a host plant? or what else would be like carrot, but taller.

http://www.schaefer.dhcp.biz/albums/new/2009/latest/DSC09261.JPG

http://www.schaefer.dhcp.biz/albums/new/2009/latest/DSC09266.JPG

http://www.schaefer.dhcp.biz/albums/new/2009/latest/DSC09271.JPG

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Comments (10)

jmcat
14 years ago
Does it have purple lines or spots on its stem, especially on the lower sections? If so, it is poison hemlock. I do not know whether Black Swallowtails (Papilio polexenes) use it successfully as a host plant. However, I have wondered about that very question before, and would be very interested to know the answer.
Interestingly enough, though, I don't know whether it would give caterpillars an advantage to be able to eat poison hemlock without dying. After all, other poisonous butterfly species are protected because predators remember the bad taste of one individual, and so avoid other, similar-looking individuals. However, if a caterpillar stored even the slightest amount of poison hemlock toxins in its body, it would be enough to kill most any predator that ate it. This would not protect other individuals much at all.
If this is indeed poison hemlock, please keep us updated on what happens!
-Jmcat
avid_gardener
Original Author
14 years ago
One thought I had was whether the caterpillars could have wondered onto this plant from another. I know monarchs do this, but I've never seen black swallowtails leave the host plant unless its been defoliated.

I'll get a close up picture of the stems.
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avid_gardener
Original Author
14 years ago
Wild Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) is touching the plant they are on. I know Black Swallowtail has a wide range of host plants. I wonder if Wild Parsnip could be one.

Also, Ohio Perennial Weed Guide says on the Wild Parsnip page that Wild Carrot can grow "with wild carrot that reaches 5 feet or less." ~ different information on two of their pages.
bananasinohio
14 years ago
I wondered this too because I observed and collected eggs from a female depositing on what looked to be water hemlock. Okay so:

According to HOSTS there is a record for Papilio polyxenes eating Cicuta bulbifera (bublet bearing water hemlock),Cicuta douglassi (western water hemlock),and Cicuta maculatum (spotted water hemlock).

In addition, I found this abstract:

Larvae of the eastern black swallowtail butterfly, Papilio polyxenes asterias (Stoll) were fed a variety of plants of the family Umbelliferae and were analyzed for larval growth, feeding efficiencies and nitrogen budgets as a function of food plant age and nutrient content. Several food plants (Hydrocotyle americana, Sanicula gregaria, Osmorhiza claytoni, Osmorhiza longistylis and Torilis japonica of the Umbelliferae; and Xanthoxylum americanum of the Rutaceae) proved to be unacceptable to the larvae in no-choice situations for a variety of reasons. Among these, we found escape in space, escape in time, and a newly discovered physical trichome defense of Torilis japonica to be involved. The food plants suceessfully fed upon (Daucus carota, Pastinaca sativa, Conium maculatum, Cicuta bulbifera, Angelica atropurpurea, Thaspium trifoliatum, Cryptotaenia canadensis, Chaerophyllum procumbens, and Heracleum maximum

Circuta bulbifera was found in there.

-Elisabeth
avid_gardener
Original Author
14 years ago
The picture hyperlinks above have been moved to:

http://www.schaefer.dhcp.biz/albums/Garden2009/DSC09261.JPG
http://www.schaefer.dhcp.biz/albums/Garden2009/DSC09266.JPG
http://www.schaefer.dhcp.biz/albums/Garden2009/DSC09271.JPG

I took some close up pictures yesterday. Both caterpillars were eating the leaves of the mystery (giant wild carrot looking) plant. I am 5'10", and I was standing on ground 1' higher than the base of the plant, and it was still taller by probably a foot. There are others nearby that are of similar size. On the other side of the bridge (neighbors side of the creek) there are plants of the same kind that look to be 8 feet tall easily.

The past two years I've been cutting these down because I thought they were/are poison hemlock and I've been successful in that they haven't grown back in the area I've purged them from. Not because cutting them back, but because of all the other plants probably keeping them shaded.

Here are the pictures I took yesterday, some of the stem. The surrounding vegetation was dense. I hope to take a picture of the base part of the stem of another plant that is more exposed.

Caterpillar eating a leaf.
http://www.schaefer.dhcp.biz/albums/Garden2009/DSC09272.JPG

Higher up stem, with bindweed climbing it.
http://www.schaefer.dhcp.biz/albums/Garden2009/DSC09273.JPG

Lower part of stem, hard to see
http://www.schaefer.dhcp.biz/albums/Garden2009/DSC09276.JPG

Mid stem, with branch bract
http://www.schaefer.dhcp.biz/albums/Garden2009/DSC09277.JPG

Close up of foliage with little damage
http://www.schaefer.dhcp.biz/albums/Garden2009/DSC09278.JPG

Different angles of stem, but not that well in focus
http://www.schaefer.dhcp.biz/albums/Garden2009/DSC09279.JPG
http://www.schaefer.dhcp.biz/albums/Garden2009/DSC09280.JPG
http://www.schaefer.dhcp.biz/albums/Garden2009/DSC09281.JPG

I forgot to mention, when I got up close I saw so many aphids! It explains why the plant is crawling with lady bugs. Could the species of aphid help determine what plant it is?
terrene
14 years ago
I can't seem to get your links to work. You could try posting on the "Name that plant" forum, for an ID on the species. There are a lot of knowledge plant people over there (although they might not know as much about butterfly host plants).
avid_gardener
Original Author
14 years ago
The DNS service dumped my domain account last night. The links should be working now. If not, substitute www.schaefer.dhcp.biz with 24.210.222.22
avid_gardener
Original Author
14 years ago
The foliage does look very much like Poison Hemlock, compare the third photo http://www.missouriplants.com/Whitealt/Conium_maculatum_page.html with this that I took a picture of http://www.schaefer.dhcp.biz/albums/Garden2009/DSC09278.JPG
avid_gardener
Original Author
14 years ago
Comparing it to the third photo http://www.missouriplants.com/Whitealt/Daucus_carota_page.html of Wild Carrot, I'm going to make a judgment call that the Black Swallowtail caterpillars were eating Poison Hemlock!

It explains why it is 6-8 feet tall, cause it is Poison Hemlock. I'm going to look it over better for the mottling color on the stem, or at least for the hairiness on the stem of a wild carrot.
karen829
14 years ago
It looks to me like Queen Anne's Lace which is one the host plants for the Black Swallowtail. They have several plants which the caterpillars will eat which include parsley, bronze fennel, Queen Anne's Lace, Rue...

Here is a link that might be useful: Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

Black swallowtail / host plant question?

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jmcat

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Black swallowtail / host plant question?

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