It always amazes me how camouflaged these caterpillars become. I check my cassia plant daily and never see any caterpillars. Today I was surprised to find this rather large cloudless sulphur caterpillar. It is now the newest resident in our butterfly house.
We brought home a new plant from the last native plant sale we attended, another member of the cassia family.
Days after planting it into the ground I spotted a cloudless sulphur caterpillar.
I waited for the caterpillar to grow a little more before welcoming it into the butterfly house as our latest resident. I thought for sure it was very close to the last instar, but it is still munching away on fresh leaves almost every day. I have read they grow up to 1.8 inches.
A neat characteristic of this caterpillar is the coloration, as it turns green, or yellow depending on the green leaves, or yellow flowers it eats. My cassia does not have any flowers yet, as they are both very young trees.
For more information, photographs, about the cloudless sulphur, visit https://bit.ly/3vJIMNd.
A stroll through the garden this morning revealed five cloudless sulphur caterpillars on our cassia tree.
These caterpillars do a wonderful job of camouflaging themselves. These caterpillars turn into a brilliant yellow butterfly, which have become a welcome visitor to our garden.
On Tuesday our cloudless sulphur caterpillar was roaming around the butterfly house in search of the ideal space for its chrysalis.
It’s interesting how dark the coloring was before it began the next stage.
From early this morning until mid afternoon it finished the process.
This sulphur hangs vertically from a silk pad, as well as being suspended from the silk girdle.
Did you know the cloudless sulphur is called “cloudless” because the male is pure yellow without any markings on the top of its wings? This species is very popular in our area, as females migrate south through Florida to the southern counties of the state.
Check out my cloudless sulphur page: https://bit.ly/3OAeHXa
I found another cloudless sulphur caterpillar resting on our cassia tree.
The two caterpillars below are residents of our butterfly house. Another caterpillar that changes with its appearance as it goes through its various instars.
The cloudless sulphur life cycle: https://bit.ly/3ydfSXv
