Saturday, July 24, 2010

Caterpillar Help?

I've got these caterpillars on one of my young trees in the back yard. Anybody know what they are? The biggest ones are about an inch and a half long.









4 comments:

icebear said...

the bird poop looking one might be a Viceroy or a giant swallowtail

and the green one looks like maybe a spicebush or maybe a tiger swallowtail

meemsnyc said...

Wow, what pretty looking catepillar! Are they eating your leaves?

Amy said...

Thanks, I leaning toward Western Tiger Swallowtail. I hope I get to see the butterflies, I'm not sure I've ever seen one of the swallowtails.

They're snacking on the leaves but even with about 15 of them on there it doesn't look like they'll really do any harm. I almost smushed the first one I found b/c all I saw was a big fat caterpillar that looked like a tomato hornworm until I really looked at it. I decided to leave them alone until I found out more. Glad I did!

Corner Gardener Sue said...

Hi Amy,
I'm not sure what they are, either. I'm thinking the first one could end up being the same kind, just a different instar. I have learned over time to desire having caterpillars instead of dreading them. It's cool you decided to look into it before taking any action.

Your vegetable garden is looking great.