I've hand raised lots of them, Susan. I find it works better to cut a long stem of the Christmas cassia - don't know about the s. hebecarpa. I usually wait until I find the little cats to bring them in - predators may get many of the eggs, but some just may not hatch for a variety of reasons. Anyway, I also see more eggs than cats.
The adults are flying everywhere around here, but I haven't found any eggs or cats. I assume that's because the sicklepod/s. obtusifolia is EVERYWHERE now, big and flowering, just like they like it. They really prefer it to Christmas cassia, but it's an annual that has to be replanted every hear, which I didn't do this year. When you grow it in your garden, fertilized by chicken manure, it grows huge compared to the size it gets roadside. If the cats eat yellow flowers, they'll be yellow instead of green!
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Good luck with your sulphurs!
MissSherry

Congrats on finding the cat, Susan. I keep seeing the CS lay eggs on my partridge pea, but I haven't managed to find any cats yet. The picture is great, MissSherry. Now I know what I will be looking for. I think the predators are just too busy trying to stay ahead of me. Susan, I hope you are able to hand raise this one and show it to me next weekend.

I have a mockingbird with a white tail, no dark feathers at all, that has decided to adopt me as his friend. He is probably shunned by the other MBs. Where ever I am, he finds me and comes and "chats." He knows that I put that garden in with all those delicious cats and BFs just for him! I've told him he can have all the wasps, beetles, stinkbugs, etc. that he wants, but leave my BFs alone! LOL

Sandy

I think the MBs are funny and I love to listen to them mimicking the other birds! I have several in the yard, and do they get MAD when my cat is outside! Especially when they have chicks around.

My CS is green because it is not eating flowers yet. The flowers have come and gone on the S. hebecarpa. But they are just starting to come on the S. bicapsularis. S. hebecarpa really starts to die back when it gets hot, but sends up new stems, so I have a few of those, and that's where I found the cat. There were two, but one disappeared. There are lots of eggs all over the place, but you're right, MissSherry - there are a lot more eggs than I've ever seen cats. That wasn't true with the Sleepy Oranges.

I put the leaf of the S. hebecarpa on the foliage of the S. bicapsularis, hoping the cat will revert to consuming the S. bicapsularis, which is keeping nicely in the water. The S. hebecarpa does not, which is why I switched the cat to the S. bicapsularis. So far, I've not found anything on the partridge pea, but it's still relatively small.

I like the S. bicapsularis really well, because it reseeds itself every year, and the foliage is so nice on it. It really is a pretty plant.

I'm gonna have tons of seed from my S. hebecarpa, Partridge Pea, and S. bicapsularis if anyone wants any. I had to throw a ton of it away last year. I didn't even save any for myself, but I didn't have to worry about it. The seedlings that grew from dropped seed on the plant produced even nicer plants than the ones I planted myself last year.

I absolutely adore the CS's. They are so big and such a pretty color of yellow. They sure were glad I reinstated the Swamp Hibiscus this year!!

Thanks for the info!

Susan

Save some partridge pea seeds for me Susan - I might miss getting them from roadsides here. That's another plant that'll get much bigger in your garden than it does naturally if you cultivate it.
Since you said your Christmas cassia reseeds every year, does this mean you have to replant it every year? Mine lives through the winter, even keeping some leaves on it, but I prune it severely early every spring to get lots of new, caterpillar friendly new growth. I love the fall flowers!
MissSherry

Susan,

I found a tiny green cat with a black head on my Partridge pea. It had made a little leaf nest at the end of the branch. Is this one of the sulfurs?

Also, I have so much seed, that I can definitely share it. It is already dried so if you want some now, I can send it to you, MissSherry. Email me on my page.

Sandy

Will do, Sandy - thanks!
MissSherry

butterflymomok, that sounds like a skipper.

I love the powers of camouflage in the sulphur cats. They are almost invisible until you can fosus on one, then you see that there are bunches. :-)

MissSherry - your seeds are in the mail today. I never realized that these seeds were like wisteria seeds. I had them on my kitchen counter and I kept finding them on the floor! They just pop open and throw those little seeds everywhere. It made me remember our wisteria on our patio that we had when the kids were little. That thing would propel the seeds everywhere, including into the patio glass. It would sound like a bullet! One of those things I also learned about when I was teaching--how plants disperse their seeds. The natural world is all about procreation!

OKSandy

Susan, I would love some of your partridge pea seeds.

I'm going to be gone over the weekend, but after I get back, I will be ready to dig those irises anytime you want them.

Lisa

Cool - you can have Partridge Pea and some S. bicapsularis when it's ready, too, if you want. It's a very pretty plant. Partridge Pea is, too, but it does suffer some "brown out" when the weather gets hot, like the Senna hebecarpa does.

Sandy, that sounds more like some kind of skipper than a sulphur cat. They are solid green - well, the head is a little yellow.

Here's a photo of a Sleepy Orange cat, and the CS's are close to them in appearance IMHO.

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Susan

Yesterday, Kenna and I were out looking for the caterpillar on the Senna, and when we found it, it was making it's chrysalis. We watched the entire process from beginning to end. It was amazing! I'd never seen a Sulphur pupate. It's funny how they make that little arch when they shed the skin. And they look just like a stem with senna foliage on it.

The Cloudless chrysalises look slightly different than the Sleepy Oranges in that they are a bit larger, but not too much, and they have a yellow line streching from the top to the bottom on the side of the chrysalis. I'll try to get a photo.

I have some little yellows in the garden right now, too, but I don't EVEN think I could find their cats. Can you imagine. I would need 10X glasses or something!

Here's a photo of the Sleepy Orange chrysalis, and if you can just apply a yellow line where there is none on the SO, that would be a Cloudless (I believe).

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(The photo looks like it "could" have a yellow line on it, but there's not, it's the light)

Susan

Wow! What a picture and how exciting to see it pupate! Maybe I'll get to see it in "person" on Saturday!

Sandy

You should, Sandy, because it just pupated yesterday, so it will still be in chrysalis (I think) Saturday. I just have CS eggs everywhere, but I am hard pressed to find any cats. I think they are devoured as quickly as they hatch practically. So, if I can raise 3 or 4, I'll be doing good.

Susan

Don't ya love it? I've even found some yellow CSs cats on the blooms for the 1st time on my Sicklepod senna. I'll share some seeds. The cuttings really holds up well in water. And, it reseeds lots!

Linda, what is the botanical name for Sicklepod? There are so many sennas and I was just wondering.

Also, for some reason my Verbesina enceliodes just wilted and died. There are still some flowers on the top of it. I am trying to let them mature so I can collect the seed or at least they will self-sow. But, I don't know if the plant is going to make it until then. It's like one day it was absolutely gorgeous and the next day the leaves were just drooping on the entire plant. I suspect some kind of root rot, and next year, I may just plant it in a pot as it will probably survive the winter in a pot, no? Or, I need some more sand for drainage in the soil it is in. It is growing right behind the lavendar, though, and lavendar requires very sharp drainage. However, with all the rain we've had this year, parts of the lavendar are experiencing die back, too. It is also planted adjacent to lantana 'Miss Huff' and passiflora incarnata 'Incense'. Maybe there is something in the roots of these plants that the Crownbeard dislikes?

I have plenty of sennas right now, between the Xmas Cassia (unless it gets killed B4 the seeds ripen. Also, the Partridge Pea (which is dying back also), and the Wild Senna (hebecarpa).

I went out this morning and couldn't find the darned chrysalis amongst the stems of Xmas Cassia. I was panicking! The 3 other CS's are eating fine. Finally, I found it on the floor of the porch, undamaged. The fall it must have taken was only a few inches, so I'm hoping it was not damaged. Oh, no!

Susan

Susan, the CS I took home pupated last night. So now I have a CS chrysalis. Thanks!

Sandy

OMG, I can't believe it! My other 3 are still eating, but one has now developed the blue coloration along the base of the body. Mine are green and not the yellow striped ones like MissSherry gets, because they have been consuming foliage rather than the flowers. There are flowers on the Xmas cassia, but so far, they are just eating the leaves.

I love the Cloudless Sulphurs - they are so big and beautiful and when you find one nectaring on Red flowers, like the hibiscus coccineus, it is such a beautiful contrast. They are so difficult to photograph, though, because they are easily spooked. Sandy, you may want to try to photograph as soon after they eclose as possible, because otherwise, they are hard to pin down.

Susan

The air is thick with CSs here, but I haven't found the first egg or cat on my Christmas cassia - I'm going to be gathering some sicklepod seed pods this fall for next year.
MissSherry

So...we a Cloudless female visit our yard yesterday. Wouldn't be exceptional back in Houston, but this is central MD...

Jeff

Missherry -- I always wondered about the yellow CS caterpillars versus the green. I say that because one day they're green ... and then the next few days they're yellow (as they're feeding on the yellow flowers). So it made me question if they were 2 different caterpillars... and now I know :)

Susanlynne -- Thanks for posting that picture of the sleepy orange caterpillar and chrysallis. I'm so jealous you got to watch it pupate. I've only watched the Monarchs do that. I believe I may have seen a couple of these SO's in my garden but then again, what if what I'm seeing is really a CS? I guess the next time I see one, I'll take a picture and post it for identification.

Here in South Florida, the sulphurs love my candlestick cassia and popcorn cassia.

Here is a link that might be useful: Butterfly Love

Jeff, do you grow any cassia for the Sulphurs in your garden? The males are a more solid yellow and the females' undersides have a sprinkling of brown dots.

Lita, I bet you do have the Sleepy Oranges in your garden. The summer forms is an obvious orange on the underside of the wings, but the upperside sports a dark border around the upper and hind wings. You can usually see the border (the wings are almost transparent) even when looking at the butterflies underside, and they are smaller butterflies than the Cloudless Sulphurs. You'll rarely see it with open wings, or at least I don't. The female and male may differ some in depth of color, I don't recall. I bet MissSherry knows. I had tons of eggs and cats on my Senna hebecarpa (Wild Senna) this year.

I love the Sulphurs because they add a bit of whimsey and sunshine to the garden.

Susan

I love those cloudless sulphurs, too! And yes, the females are paler than the males, some paler than others. There was a female out in my garden today laying eggs all over my Christmas cassias. One of them, my older bush, has lots of buds on it, so when the eggs on that cassia hatch, they'll undoubtedly eat the flowers and be yellow. My big cage is empty now, so I think I'm going to bring in a lot of young CS cats and raise them myself - Christmas cassia/cassia bicapsularis holds up well in water, so it's not too difficult.
MissSherry

You're right about it holding up, MissSherry. I was afraid to try the Wild Senna, so moved the cats to the Xmas cassia, which they immediately took to. For some reason, the CS cats I had did not eat the flowers. I gave them stems with flowers on them, but they were content to just eat the foliage. I wanted to see one turn yellow likes yours, so I at least have that to look forward to eventually.

I brought in a couple more eggs on stems of the Xmas Cassia today. If I leave them out there, they just get devoured by predators. I hope the eggs will hatch okay. I have a chrysalis right now that I'm watching. They are easily spooked, so I hope I catch the eclosure early in the game.

The other night I had a dream that a CS hatched and the upperside was ORANGE! What a dream! I'm getting my SOs and my CSs crossed (as well as my eyes when looking for these elusive cats).

Susan