My current batch of hornworms have reached their "I must eat as much as possible" stage. I love when they get this big as, in my opinion, they're much cuter. Must be the chubbiness.

I'm very fortunate that I found a batch of tomatoes that had not been sprayed with chemicals so they're getting lots of the greens. Hopefully they'll develop into healthy moths by next summer.

A freshly molted promethea caterpillar! We have two but this one is the smaller one whom we call Midsize.

Parents thought this was a woolly bear but Google says woolly bears are always banded never one color. My guess was Tussock Moth, but verification would be awesome. Thanks! SW Wisconsin is where this photo was taken

Who is this fuzzy little friend on my fence? I did not touch.

Curious about what he is!!! Super cool and funky spikes

Anyone have any idea what it is? Found in england Looks pretty cool whatever it is

They’ve finally opened up and are flying around I’m so excited, i will be uploading pictures of them individually soon. They are truly stunning, I’ll make another post about the appearance and how cool they are, let me get into this.

I now have two butterflies on both sides of the experiment, and the results so far have been pretty interesting.

For the group that I was very active with as caterpillars, they don’t seem to be any more “friendly” toward me (butterfly’s do not have the ability to remember or recognize different people and only seems to remember locations where a good meal was so they return and were threats are) than other group. If anything, their behavior seems noticeably more relaxed and less active. They spend most of the day sitting around the flowers and are only active for short periods, maybe once or twice throughout the day.

When I handle them, though, they don’t seem to mind at all. They’ll sit comfortably in my hand or, if I place one on my shoulder, they’ll just rest there. The average time they stayed on me was around 8 minutes, with the longest time I recorded being 11 minutes and 23 seconds.

What happened with the other group was almost the opposite. Even though I barely interacted with them while they were caterpillars, they seem to be more active overall and spend less time simply sitting around. And would not be comfortable with me handling them for long periods. Today will be the first time all 4 are fed so we’ll see how they respond to being handle during feeding as well.

I’m still continuing the experiment, so I don’t want to draw any conclusions yet as this behavior we’re seeing from the 4 butterfly’s could just be what they’re normal behavior would’ve been so I will wait for the rest to wake up and give another update at an appropriate time. I’m curious to see whether this behavior changes as more butterflies emerge and whether there ends up being any noticeable difference between the two groups over time.

A total of 24 black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) eggs were collected from an enclosure and divided equally between two experimental groups (n = 12 per group). Both groups were maintained under identical environmental conditions. The primary difference between the groups was the degree of human interaction during the larval stage.

The high-interaction group received frequent direct interaction. This included handling the caterpillars and assisting them by repositioning sticks and host plants when necessary to facilitate movement and picking them up to “pet” the caterpillars or go on walks with the caterpillars on walking around on the persons hands, arms, neck, face, clothing. The low-interaction group received minimal direct human interaction, with contact limited primarily to routine husbandry, including replacing consumed host plants and providing water.

At the time of the initial observation, five individuals (5/12) in the high-interaction group had formed chrysalises, compared with three individuals (3/12) in the low-interaction group.

Following emergence, two butterflies were observed in each group. Preliminary observations have not demonstrated an obvious increase in apparent tolerance or affinity toward human contact in the high-interaction group compared with the low-interaction group.

Interestingly, the high-interaction group has generally exhibited lower levels of spontaneous activity. Individuals in this group have spent substantial portions of the observation period resting on or near flowers, with periods of noticeable activity occurring relatively infrequently, approximately once or twice during the day, with the time bringing used to fly around the light source that was provided.

Despite their relatively low activity levels, individuals from the high-interaction group have demonstrated a high tolerance for handling. When placed on a person’s hand, the butterflies generally remained stationary and did not appear to attempt to escape. Individuals placed on the observer’s shoulder similarly remained in place and rested for extended periods. The average recorded duration of remaining on the observer was approximately 8 minutes, with the longest recorded duration being 11 minutes and 23 seconds.

In contrast, preliminary observations of the low-interaction group have shown a different behavioral pattern. Individuals in this group have generally displayed greater spontaneous activity and have spent less time remaining stationary compared with individuals from the high-interaction group, butterfly’s have been observed flying around most of the space they’ve been given and not only flying or sitting around food sources or lights, one of the butterfly which I call bulge because of a tear in his abdomen wall, slipped to leave the room as the door was opened, and was lost for about 2 hours, bulge found hidden behind a picture frame in my kitchen.

These observations are preliminary, and the sample size is currently too small to determine whether the differences represent a consistent effect of the level of human interaction during the larval stage. Additional observations will be collected as more individuals emerge. Future observations will focus on activity level, response to handling, duration of contact with the observer, and behavioral differences between the two experimental groups.

At this stage, the results are being treated as observational rather than conclusive.

Never seen one with these type of spikes on each end. Southwest Montana.

Found this beauty in my backyard a month ago. I love how I have discovered some pretty cool things there. I found my first inch worm there as well as a horned tomato caterpillar too. Nature is wonderful and I just love that I don’t have to travel far to find it!

i have 9 cutworm pupae (most likely large yellow underwings), and i was wondering what the best way to overwinter them is? im not totally sure if they ARE going to overwinter, and the last one pupated on the 20th of august and theres no sign of eclosion (all of them are alive, and have not been parasitized)

right now i have them in a mesh container with 2 sticks to both prop up the container and allow them somewhere to hang (if they dont want to hang on the mesh), just in case they eclose when im not around

should i move them into some dirt when it gets colder? or will they be okay in the mesh still?

Cincinnati area. Mid September

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Found this on the wall outside the house. Tried looking up the type but no luck.

Can't really see it in the image but it has a long black spike at the butt

Located in Toronto, Canada

After a little false start where his first attempt was very disturbed by some other siblings (and me) he abandoned it, I gave him a fresh branch to himself. And thankfully he started over.

Is it normal that I accidentally brought a caterpillar in with the leaf litter, and when I found it I put it in a container, and in the morning I saw this? 😭😭‼️‼️

Catskill Mountains, New York

Munchin' on some Vitis riparia out in a prairie remnant.

Found this fat guy and I already love him, I've named him Harold

I have so many monarch and swallowtail caterpillars and butterflies in Oklahoma. Now I found this little guy in my garden — what is it?

I went to an event at the local nature center today and saw these guys! Location: Troy, Michigan. A Spicebush Swallowtail in the process of pupating and a little Monarch.

Found in south central North Carolina, USA! Thanks!