Caterpillars
Little orange caterpillars with black tufts are attempting to decimate my passiflora vine.
They're everywhere, chewing big ragged holes in the leaves.
Passiflora is a host plant for butterflies. This vine is heavily shaded by my neighbor's forest of 'trash trees' - mostly hackberry trees, planted along the fence line by birds - and has never received enough sun to bloom. I did a little research, and found out that this caterpillar -
- turns into this butterfly.
In fact, I saw several gulf fritillaries flitting dizzily around the yard this weekend, in the frenzied, herky-jerky manner of a newly hatched butterfly trying to figure it all out.
This fall, I should move the vine to a sunnier location, to give it a better chance of surviving.
They're everywhere, chewing big ragged holes in the leaves.
Passiflora is a host plant for butterflies. This vine is heavily shaded by my neighbor's forest of 'trash trees' - mostly hackberry trees, planted along the fence line by birds - and has never received enough sun to bloom. I did a little research, and found out that this caterpillar -
- turns into this butterfly.
In fact, I saw several gulf fritillaries flitting dizzily around the yard this weekend, in the frenzied, herky-jerky manner of a newly hatched butterfly trying to figure it all out.
This fall, I should move the vine to a sunnier location, to give it a better chance of surviving.
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