The 'stick ups' are called scoli. I've never read anything that gives a reason for them being there, so I assume it's just to make the caterpillar appear ferocious so as to scare away predators. They're harmless to people, don't sting, and I've seen many pictures of people holding the late instar caterpillars in their hands, kids included. Each instar of this species is different from the others. The scoli are much taller in relation to overall body size in the early instars than they are in the later instars. In the later instars, their body gets thick, and the scoli point backward. There are many pictures of them on the internet, but I'll be posting pictures of each instar, since they're so unique. The adults are beautiful. Since they only have one flight per year, I won't see the adult moth until next year. I'll have to provide these with a bucket of leaves or paper towels for them to burrow into when they're ready to make their pupa. I'll keep them on the porch unless we have an extremely cold night (like the one last January) and then I'll bring them into my unheated guest room. I'm getting ahead of myself here, though. They're not the easiest ones to raise, so I don't want to jinx things by talking about their pupae just yet! :) Sherry

Now thatâÂÂs a great picture that shows a lot of detail. Good job. Even so your pupa could be Limenitis arthemis astyanax, Limenitis archippus archippus or even Limenitis arthemis arthemis. While some lepidopterists' in locations where multiple species overlap think they may have enough long term experience with possible local species clines (and so their variations) to do so, as Angie suggested, in these species it's very hard to impossible to determine species/subspecies in the pupal stage. An example... A very serious, over the top lepidopterist I was associated with 20-25 years ago spent many years studying a specific vast area in the west where the recorded ranges of several Limenitis species/subspecies did or could over lap. As well as for many other specifics, the research included determining if the species/subspecies could be identified from the larval and pupal stages. End result I believe was yes from larval stage (at least to species level), but only maybe from the pupal stage. ItâÂÂs been a long time since I read his paper written from the study, but if I remember right the Limenitis species recorded in the location he studied included at least: L. astyanax arizonensis (others referred to this bug as L. arthemis arizonensis) L. archippus obsoleta L. archippus lahontani L. weidemeyerii latifacia L. weidemeyerii angustifacia L. weidemeyerii nevadae L. lorquini lorquini L. lorquini burrisonii HTH, L.

Susan, Oh, I definitely have tobacco and tomato hornworms every year and lots of them, but they just ignore the tomato plants almost all the time. I recognize them well, having dealt with them all my life in Texas. They used to devour my dad's tomato plants until he planted 4 o'clocks near them. They devour the neighbors' tomato plants but not mine. I am not sure where the credit should go--but likely the borage, four o'clocks and other companion plants are either repelling the hornworms or attracting beneficial insects that prey upon them. One of my neighbors did tell me he thinks the reason I don't have hornworms on the tomato plants and pepper plants has got to be because I don't spray pesticides that kill off the beneficials, because our gardens grow very similarly in other respects but he sprays broad-spectrum pesticides so has more pest problems. (Hard to teach an old dog new tricks, though he sprays less now than he used to.) We do have the sphinx moths/cats that you find on Virginia Creeper and Trumpet Creeper vines, but just not in large numbers. With acres and acres of Virginia Creeper in the woodlands, I am sure there's a lot of them that we don't see since there is so much food available. The Virginia Creeper near the house rarely has pest issues but will have an occasional hornworm. We also have whatever it is that eats pentas and I cannot keep pentas alive if I leave them uncovered, so I have pretty much stopped planting them. I love pentas, but there is not a lot of point in planting ornamentals that get eaten back to the ground in mere days after the cats find them. They aren't very ornamental when they are just stubs of plants right above the soil line. We also have something that eats the brugmansia leaves, particularly early in the spring. It looks like it is going to be a great moth and butterfly year here. We have dozens and dozens of moths flocking to the porch lights every evening, and lots of butterfly and bee activity all day every day. The butterfly population still consists mostly of sulphurs so far, and we have tons of them here every year---both the really big ones and the small ones. Dawn

I have to say, I've had more dragonflies and damselflies this year than ever before and that MUST be because of all our rain. Especially with me living in the city, too - I rarely see them. I remember seeing lots of them on the lakes and river back home, but not in OKC. Some of them have been absolutely gorgeous - a big red furry one (I mean this sucker was BIG!); the blue ones, the brown ones, and the black ones. Beautiful! Courtney, when your caterpillars get big enough and are ready to pupate, they will wander off the host plant to find another location to form the chrysalis. Sometimes they will wander fairly great distances, too. They blend in with plants by forming a green chrysalis, and blend in with fence posts, decks, and brown twigs, by forming a brown chrysalis. They wander away so they will not be on the plant where the odor of the food plant remains, and their frass (poop) as well. It's another method they utilize to avoid predators. After the chrysalis is formed, all of the catepillars organs reduce to liquid, and then it reconstitutes as a butterfly. Wasps are known in particular, for attacking chrysalis's to suck the liquid from them. Hence, they go off elsewhere away from the food source and odor. Your Eastern Tiger could have been another female, but usually Tiger females are smaller and I've only seen the black form female lately. The black form female tiger swallowtail closely resembles the black swallowtail and pipevine swallowtail. But, if you ever see a black swallowtail flying with or breeding with a yellow tiger, it is a black form female Tiger. Confusing, I know. Spiders are another thing I am seeing a lot. Spiders are EVERYWHERE! Overnight, they build a web across from the flower bed to the pine tree, and from a potted plant to the rose shrub, or from the Joe Pye Weed to the front porch. They are all over my passion vines, where they hide in wait until the Gulf Frits lay eggs and they gobble them up. I try to remove as many as I can, plus I take the eggs and put them in the GF container. I have about 50 caterpillars. But, jiminy Christmas - they are on the ground, webs across the plants and grass, trees, you name it. I've made a point to check early in the a.m. and again at night for eggs and tiny cats, trying to get them safely inside before a spider finds them. I have a few ladybugs. Like you, Dawn, I had a lot more in spring. I find a few eating the oleander aphids, along with the hoverfly larvae, lacewings, and ladybug larvae, too. So far, I haven't seen the assassin bugs yet. Grrrrr! I hope I don't. I do not like them, no I don't. I have two hummers - either black-chinned or female Rubies. I don't know which. But, they are so tiny. They have irridescent green on their backs, and 3 white spots on their outer tail feathers. Do you know hummers? Anyway, I've been feeding them, plus they've been nectaring on everything from the zinnias, to the lantana, to the passion flowers (they really love those), to the verbena bonariensis - they're not picky at all. I have some sparse honeysuckle blooms and they like them, too, but they love to just sit in the knarly branches of the honeysuckle tree. They don't fly all the time - they have their favorite perches. They are so darned cute! I put out the rotten bananas for the butterflies, which also draws the fruit flies, and the hummers go crazy over them. I've never had hummers before and I'm loving them. Did I tell you about my tomato volunteer? It's a yellow pear from last year's planting. It just came up near where I had them planted last summer. I didn't know they would reseed! Courtney, Viceroys and Red Spotted Purples use Willow as well. Their caterpillars look like bird droppings. Does it resemble that? I've got a couple of black willow saplings and Wild Cherry saplings, and I was sure hoping I would get some, but not yet so far. Susan