First, your caterpillar looks like it might be some kind of sulfur cat. What kind of tree/plant did you find the caterpillar on?

And your eggs definitely look like butterfly eggs. The butterfly you describe is called a Snout Butterfly. Were the eggs laid on a Hackberry tree?

It helps when identifying caterpillars/eggs to know what plant is. All butterflies have specific host plants.

Congrats on your finds, and welcome to the forum.

The tree I'm PRETTY sure is a hackberry as I looked it up and the leaves are very similiar. We have two HUGE ones in the backyard. along with many other trees.

I looked for more cats and found MULTIPLE small ones smaller than my fingernail. I left them be. But I did happen to find a large one hiding under a leaf in silk.

Here's a pic of the larger one.
{{gwi:526548}}

If anyone knows what this is..I'd much appreciate an ID.

Turns out I've found abunch of hackberry emperors. I'm excited to raise them. They're all over the hackberry tree. It's infested with caterpillars.

Yay! How much fun. I've raised these babies and they are very interesting. Sometimes they hide so well, you think you've lost them. Enjoy!

I've included a link to my Eggs, Larvae, and Chrysalides gallery on Pbase. The link will lead you to the Hackberry Emperor caterpillar. The next three photos show the metamorphosis of the Hackberry.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hackberry Emperor Caterpillar

Lucky you! What a beautiful butterfly!

I am soooo jealous! Newbies have all the luck! I have a huge hackberry in my yard, tons of volunteers, lot's of hackberry butterflies and never find a caterpillar or egg! Wah!!!! Congratulations! Have fun!
-Elisabeth

Hey everyone,
there are actually 2 very very simular looking caterpillars and they both feed on Hackberry..:
the first one is the TAWNY EMPEROR caterpillar: it is mostly green and has 2 wide yellow stripes on its uppersides and straight yellow bands on its lower sides.The adult has a wingspan of about 2.5 inches.
the second one is the HACKBERRY BUTTERFLY caterpillar:it looks very much like the first one mentioned,but this one has yellowish V-markings along the sides,the narrow bands on upper sides are more narrow.The knobs on the head are usually longer than the ones from the Tawny Emperor. This Butterfly is with his 2 inches wingspan a lil smaller than the T.E. and also the colors are a lil lighter.
The Hackberry Butterfly is more common..
Butterfly-Greetings
Susanne(SUE)

Hackberry Butterfly:
http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/cimg284.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Tawny Emperor

banana: The trick to finding these are if you see a bunch of leaves clumped together or a leaf with a fold tear open the fold a viola they hide in the folds they make in the leaves.

And I must have a tawny AND and a hackberry. Cause one has the v's and one has the stripes plus i managed to find TWO Snout eggs on one leaf as I watched the snout lay the eggs. And I found two caterpillars on a sassafrass but I don't know what those are. I'll have to put up pics and get someone to ID them.

Eggs on sasafrass could be Spicebush Swallowtail. Watch it closely. Tawny Emperors lay their eggs in clusters of 200-300 (not all will survvive) and they usually feed as a group in the early instars. There is a good discussion on Bug Guide about the difference between Hackberry cats and Tawny cats.

Susan

Butterflyenthusiast,

Congrats! You definitely have struck it rich in BF "larvae" terms! You have all of us old timers just drooling over what you have found in your backyard. Please make sure you document the Snouts, as there is little photo documentation of eggs, larvae, and pupae available.

Do your catepillars on the Sassafras tree have little leaf nests also? The early instar Spicebush Swallowtail eats across the leaf to the center vein and then folds the end of the leaf into a nest. Later the caterpillar just curls a whole leaf.

Sandy

Turns out they are spicebush swallowtail. It had a folded leaf nest and I found pics of the instars and it's in it's first instar. As for the snout...Sadly I didn't think to isolate the egg and believe that the hungry emporers have eaten it. :( I do have a question about the SST? I read the second gen overwinter? Will mine overwinter? As it being august it doesn't really get COLD here until late october/early november.

Yes, I have torn open more leaves than I care to mention. I was driving my six year old nuts yesterday on a walk. I was examining every spicebush along a trail. Nope, just never found a hackberry or tawny emperor. We have had both in our yard. I think because we have a 60 ft hackberry, they tend to lay in the tops of the large tree. Oh, well, I will keep looking and someday...
-Elisabeth

BFenthusiast,

I am not sure if the Spicebushes will eclose this fall or wait until spring. I currently have 5 chrysalides and 6 more tiny cats. One of the caterpillars crawled out of the container and pupated in the corner of my living room, about 6 foot up from the floor! I haven't checked it to see if I can move it. But, if it doesn't eclose before winter, I will remove it and put it in a container that I can keep outside for the winter. The other chrysalides are in an aquarium with my cecropia cocoons, which will have to overwinter outdoors.

Finding a spicebush cat is like finding hidden treasure.I must have checked 100 spicebushes and sassafras trees yesterday,annd only found one spicebush cat.There were a few folded leaves but they were either empty or contained a small spider or a light green moth cat.