Just a few caterpillar updates here. All of my Silver-Spotted Skippers died. My dad was spraying around the house for wasps and mosquitoes but insists he got nowhere near the False Indigo. I tend to believe him because the Trilobed Pipevine is growing literally underneath the False Indigo and if one had been sprayed you would assume the other would have, too. But I'm feeding the Trilobed Pipevine to the Pipevine ST cats and no one has died yet. Although, in bad news I have one cat that is, well, ill. To put it bluntly, his internal parts are sticking out of his anus. I was going to put him out of his misery but he keeps wandering around and today it actually looks like it went back inside some so I just can't bring myself to write him off yet. I had another Pipevine ST cat that had some watery frass or liquid coming out of him and it isn't gut purge time so I don't know what to think there. He seems ok for the moment. I gave them some fresh food just to be safe. I found a few more Long-Tailed Skipper cats so I brought them in. I'm probably going to have to take some to MOSI (they don't have any so that will be good) but I need to ask my boss if she has enough plants for them to eat first.
Saw a Cloudless Sulphur today but wasn't quick enough with the camera. Sulphurs are so fast. This one was on the plumbago which they do eat occasionally but they seem to have other favorites. There's a bee I keep trying to get a picture of but it's very elusive. I just want to know what kind of bees I'm hosting. This one loves the porterweed. I've seen a few Tiger STs while driving but no one has found my host plant, yet (Sweetbay Magnolia).
Just one picture today and it's of my Polydamas ST cats. About half of the first group has decided to build their slings. I cut the stem they were on and taped them up around the cage to keep the other cats away from them. Although, if you've got one in the wandering phase, it can end up anywhere! My second group of Polydamas are about ready to be upgraded from small tupperware to medium sized critter keeper. They grow so fast! Like I've always said, Polydamas are pretty chill caterpillars but you can see the one is stinkhorning me in the picture. They were all doing that because once they get in their sling they literally have no other defenses. So I can't blame them. They don't know I'm helping; I'm just big and scary. Every year I question why I raise such stinky caterpillars, but when the butterflies come out, I remember why. Look forward to it in about two weeks!
