So last June, after a slew of pipevine (Battus philenor) caterpillars devoured our lone pipevine plant (Aristolochia fimbriata), we drove to Austin and bought two more from the Natural Gardener. Well, they've torn through one plant already and will likely finish up the second. Which leaves one plant. Good luck, guys!
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| Click on this photo to make it larger and see how many black caterpillars you can find. There's at five, maybe more. |
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| Even seed pods get eaten! |
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| A caterpillar's stripping what's left of the leaves on this plant. |
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| Battus philenor tends to be social. This photo isn't the greatest, but there are three cats on this one stem. |
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| I shook out some seeds (and caterpillar poop) from a couple of seed pods in hopes that we can germinate new pipevines to plant. Aren't the seeds cool? |
2 comments:
Yay1 You have lots of pipevine swallowtail cats. They aren't the prettiest cats, but they make one beautiful butterfly!
I think they're chubby CUTE! But alas, they're nearly out of plants! I found one searching for food a good 20 or 30 feet away (I'm not great at judging distances, but it seemed a long way for a little guy).
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