Category: butterflies (Page 36 of 43)

Bug of the Week: Tobacco Hornworm

Add another caterpillar to Caterpillar Central from last week.

We found this brave caterpillar is feeding on a jalapeno pepper plant.

It is the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta, often confused with the tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata). The tobacco hornworm has straight white lines on its sides. The tomato hornworm has V-shaped markings.

It gets its name “hornworm” from the thorn-like projection at the rear of the caterpillar. The horn is not dangerous in any way. The caterpillars are perfectly harmless, except to plants.

Notice its three pairs of true legs right next to the head. The rest are fleshy prolegs.

When it finishes eating, the larva will drop off the plant and dig into the soil to pupate. The adult moth is called a hawkmoth or sphinx moth. It flies at night and isn’t seen much during the day.

Tobacco hornworms are easy to raise and are great subjects for science activities with children.

The University of Arizona’s Manduca Project website has a wealth of information about the life cycle, techniques for rearing Manduca, lesson plans (including cool science projects) and videos. Go check it out!

Bug of the Week: Caterpillar Central

For some reason, our yard is caterpillar central this week. Here’s what we found in the last two days.

At least eight queen caterpillars on the milkweed plants.

This caterpillar is on the milkweed too, but it looks a bit different. It only has two pairs of black filaments, instead of three.

That’s because this one is a monarch caterpillar, not as common in the Phoenix area.

What’s this on the grapefruit? Looks like a bird dropping with a head.

That’s a young orange dog caterpillar, which turns into a beautiful giant swallowtail butterfly. I have an older post with more information about those. In that year we found caterpillars in August.

This morning we looked way up into the desert willow tree and there’s yet another caterpillar.

It was probably  18 to 20 feet in the air, and still big enough I could get this photograph with a telephoto lens. I would say it is five inches long, maybe six. Based on past experience, I know this is a caterpillar of the rustic sphinx moth, Manduca rustica.

Image of adult moth

Why do we have so many caterpillars right now? Maybe because we had a big rain last week and/or the temperatures have dropped below 100 ° F. In any case, the caterpillars are doing well.

Have you ever seen any of these caterpillars?

Bug of the Week: Budworm

Isn’t it interesting how plants and insects go together? We have the queen butterflies (from last week) in our yard because we have desert milkweed plants. This year we planted a birdhouse gourd,

and this year we have…

budworms. Budworms are the caterpillar of a moth. They specialize in eating flower buds, although they will also nibble leaves. This one is feeding upside down, with its head in the bud.

Here I opened the bud.Can you see the tiny brown dots in a row along its sides? Those are the openings called spiracles. Insects get their oxygen through those openings.

Budworms come in a variety of colors, including bright pink. The moths are drab with a faint olive green cast.

I wonder what we should plant next.

Do you have plants that attract a particular insect in your yard?

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