These aren't Monarchs. What similar cats would be on milkweed?

16 years ago

Running low on milkweed, I bought three small plants of Asclepias Tuberosa (in Central TX--Hallettsville, if the location helps with the ID). I especially looked for signs of life, since I didn't want to get 'sprayed' weed. A couple of little fellas--great! Now that I look at them closely, they're not monarchs!

They have three sets of antennae! Coloration is more like the swallowtail cats on my parsley, complete with some yellow dots. But the body shape is more like the monarch, as it doesn't have the domed head.

Any ideas?

Donna

Houston, TX

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Comments (9)

mboston_gw
16 years ago
Hey, you have Queen caterpillars. The distinguishing feature is the third antenna. Lucky you!
jmcat
16 years ago
I raised some of those earlier this summer! Once they're in their 4th or 5th instar, you can see that the bases of the 6 filaments they have are red! This year was my first year raising them (I had 4), and actually, I have had the Queens but not Monarchs (even though the Monarchs seem more common!). ;)
-Jmcat
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Hi Ashley, Maybe someone from your area could tell you when to expect the Monarchs. I'd have thought they'd be there by now, but not everyone can attract them right away. Last year was my first year at butterflying and was lucky enough to get them and raised 70 cats. So far I have one in a pupa, 2 ready to go in one, and 10 munching away on milkweed. I have loads of milkweed planted for them and so maybe the female just couldn't resist stopping by here. I'll see more eventually, I'm sure. Yes, those bugs are Oleander Aphids, and I bet they look like the picture in the link I provided. I never use pesticides on any of my plants. If you do that and a butterfly would happen to come by after that, it could kill the butterfly. If it lays eggs, it would kill the caterpillars when they eat the leaves. I'm not sure how long the pesticides last, but I really don't want to use them and chance losing any Monarchs because of it. I squoosh the aphids, and some people blast them with water. Of course, I don't think that kills them but would get them off of your plant temporarily. Those things multiply like crazy, so I prefer to kill them; otherwise I'm afraid I'd end up having a million of them here. Good luck with things, and I hope the Monarchs show up there. Cathy Here is a link that might be useful: Oleander Aphids
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I'm in a similar situation. I have about 36 cats in various stages left to raise. The most recent 9 just hatched yesterday. They were laid on my new this year and still very small a. speciosa. There will not be enough leaves of it to support them even if they ate it to the ground. I am hoping they will eat a. syriaca since I still have a lot of that. It looks rough but the other cats still eat it. I make sure and give the young ones the newest growth. The bigger cats get the older tough leaves after a good rinse and wipe down to remove aphids and their sticky honeydew. I looked up the different toxicity levels on monarchwatch for the milkweeds I have. Speciosa is one of the lowest, tuberosa is low, syriaca is moderate, incarnata is high, and currasivica is the highest. Just based on that I maybe should try switching them to tuberosa, but experience tells me that is usually their last choice for milkweed. I put a little sprig of the youngest tender syriaca in with them and moved one of the 1st instar cats onto it to see if it will eat it. I never have any problems moving the tiny cats with a very small fine paintbrush and have been doing it for years. I seem to recall someone saying you can actually move the eggs carefully with your fingernail, but I am afraid I would damage the egg. I would think that would be one way to make sure they will eat a different food. If they never even taste another milkweed they won't know what they are missing!
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texaspuddyprint
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Queens have three sets of tubercles. If you go to my community webshot shot linked below you'll see one with maroon at the tubercle base. The prior and subsequent photos also show the normal black and another variation of yellow.

~ Cat

Here is a link that might be useful: Queen cat - maroon tubercles
gypsiesdancing
Original Author
16 years ago
Hi Mboston, Jmcat, and Cat!

Thanks so much for your responses! I'd found pictures of the Queen caterpillars, but mine didn't have the reddish color at the base of the tubercles. Jmcat, my cats are only about 1/2 inch long, so I'll look forward to the development of the red color.

These are an unexpected bonus! So far this year I've raised 3 Black Swallowtails to save them from the wasps, and 70 monarchs (with that many more Monarchs in progress, and at least that many more of their eggs----then I'm retiring as a BF Mom for this summer! Let's hope my 10 large milkweed plants can recover and produce fast enough! Next year I'll grow lots more from seed!)

It will really interesting to watch the Queens develop, and I look forward to fewer problems than with the Monarchs!

Donna in Houston
LaurelLily
15 years ago
I've released several dozen monarchs, but today I found several queen caterpillars for the very first time. Can I enclose the queens on the same milkweed I have my monarchs enclosed with? Will they get along ok as long as there is food?

I've never seen a queen in person before! How exciting, I've now got five kinds of caterpillars being raised in my yard (hopefully more, once more butterflies discover that I have their host plants).
tdr4
15 years ago
You are so lucky. I have not seen queens or monarchs this year. Last year was the only time I ever raised any queens. Like you, I thought at first that they were monarch and then I saw the extra set of antennae. So far my milkweed only have aphids and ladybug larvae.
mboston_gw
15 years ago
If you have enough milkweed, there shouldn't be a problem.

But if you have enough, you just as well seperate them just in case there is any kind of OE virus but I don't think they would have a problem getting along.
LaurelLily
15 years ago
If you have enough milkweed, there shouldn't be a problem.

But if you have enough, you just as well seperate them just in case there is any kind of OE virus but I don't think they would have a problem getting along.

It's more of a rearing container problem, actually... my other one's full of herbs and swallowtails (two or three kinds, on fennell, rue, and parsley; I'm hoping they get along, too!), so I've only got one available for milkweed right now.

Here's a picture I took today, for anybody wanting to see the differences between a monarch (left) and a queen (right):

{{gwi:512242}}
No, that milkweed isn't the healthiest I've grown, but it looks worse in this shot than it is, and none of the cats seem to mind. Short of pesticides, I'm doing everything I can for that milkweed; the cats don't seem to mind, they chomp away obliviously.
fighting8r
14 years ago
Can anyone tell me if there is a discernable difference between queen and monarch eggs? Are the queens a bit pointy as opposed to more rounded at the end? Thanks as always!

These aren't Monarchs. What similar cats would be on milkweed?

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These aren't Monarchs. What similar cats would be on milkweed?

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