What interesting creatures live in your garden?

[journey11]

I'm afraid the mystery of this cocoon will remain unsolved, unless we find another one. We had a death in the family that took over my mind and time and I completely forgot about this until my son came and showed me the cocoon, minus the creature that inhabited it. It made a neat little hole on one side and was gone.

I believe it's a wooly bear caterpillar cocoon. I've never seen the cocoon before, but see lots of the fuzzy little guys and the hairs looked familiar to me. I see lots of the moths two, but never thought to google them before.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I believe it's a wooly bear caterpillar cocoon. I've never seen the cocoon before, but see lots of the fuzzy little guys and the hairs looked familiar to me. I see lots of the moths two, but never thought to google them before.

That sounds sensible, in which case what should have come out is an Isabella moth. But Sumi lives in South Africa (or have you moved back to Ireland already?) , so guesses based on US insects are probably not going to be correct.

Grasshopper?

I originally though it was a katydid, since those are what normally comes in odd colors around here (Never seen any of those bright orange or hot pink variations people sometimes find in the Midwest, but I've seen a few pale yellow white ones) But if it is, it's not the normal kind for around here; that's a lot flatter. It does have a katydid like wedge shaped head. (most of the grasshopper species we have around here are round headed.)

 

[sumi]

Thanks @journey11 That does look very similar!

Nope, still in SA @Pulsegleaner You'll hear me when move

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Got it. But the point still stands; it can't be a wooly bear because I don't think there ARE wooly bears in South Africa, though there may be a very similar species.

 

[journey11]

There's a list on this link of different species within the same family, Arctiidae. They have a pretty wide range apparently, North America to Asia and Europe. Wooly bear is more of a colloquial name, not specific for the species.

 

[sumi]

It likely a related species with a similar cocoon.

I just remembered something... We have an entomologist in town I'm going to ask him if he knows what that may have been.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I didn't get a picture, but last Tuesday as I was walking by the door to the back patio, a Mourning Cloak settled on the window screen (Sumi, to save you the time Mourning cloak is the US name for the butterfly that in the UK is usually called a Camberwell Beauty or Grand Surprise). Supervised to see one around here so late in the year (though since the adults apparently overwinter, I'm not sure why I should be) Always had a soft spot for these butterflies, besides being one of the more visually arresting ones around here (we get mostly whites, sulfurs, swallowtails a few blues and the occasional monarch) but because it was the first butterfly I ever successfully raised from caterpillars.

 

[Smart Red]

Neat, @Pulsegleaner! I haven't seen many butterflies around this year. I have a fuzzy plan to plant a goodly area in wild lupines in an attempt to lure the rare Karner Blue to my property.

I did find a walking stick of pretty good size in a flower bed.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Come to think of it neither have I. There were some blues or hairstreaks around early in the year (note: despite way I said we have hairstreaks too, it's just that, while they are in motion it's hard to tell them from the blues, so I usually don't bother); there always are. And I'm sure there were sulfur's and whites and swallowtails in the butterfly bushes (or more accurately in the whatever it is that isn't a butterfly bush but still attracts butterflies we have) Those are common enough I don't pay them much heed (at least, as adults). But a few days ago while driving home, it suddenly occurred to me that summer is over and I never raised so much as ONE parsley worm, because I never FOUND even one parsley worm (I'm not good at inducing them to hatch from eggs, so to get ones to raise I usually gad around the herb sections of the nursery's and farmers markets until I find fennel plants that already have tiny ones, then buy the plants and go from there.) I'm not even sure if we had the annual sunroom tragedy this year. Every summer, for some reason at least one butterfly gets caught between the two sides of the window in the sunroom where we install the air conditioner (which is why we can't just move the windows to let it out) and ends up starving (to get out, it'd have to fly DOWN and most of them instinctually always fly UP towards where the light is coming in. So they usually end up trapped until they give up and fall down (by which point they tend to be so starved they probably don't make it) What makes it worse is that the butterfly is invariably some species we usually DON'T GET around here. One year it was an eyespot, another, a fritillary.) which is good, I suppose. But I LIKE raising caterpillars (actually I don't think I saw many moth ones either this year)

 

[sumi]

@Pulsegleaner I looked them up. They are beautiful!