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[4] [5] Male butterflies can also have O. elektroscirrha, and can scatter the dormant spores onto milkweed leaves as they fly around, or pass them onto females during mating. [ 6 ] Spores of O. elektroscirrha are ingested by the caterpillars when they eat their egg chorion (shell) after they hatch, and when they feed from infected milkweed.
Both the milkweed tussock and the monarch caterpillars eat the cardiac glycoside-laden milky sap of milkweed and have evolved mechanisms to retain those toxins in their bodies after metamorphosing ...
Fifth-instar monarch larva eating milkweed leaves (Some at 20 × speed). A second-instar larva grazing on a leaf and cutting through a latex vein. The third-instar larva has more distinct bands and the two pairs of tentacles become longer. Legs on the thorax differentiate into smaller pairs near the head and larger pairs further back.
Cynanchum laeve is a food plant of caterpillars of monarch butterflies. [4] [14] Larvae of Euchaetes egle, the milkweed tussock moth, both in the Eastern and Western United States consume C. laeve. The larvae of these moths eat Cynanchum laeve and other plants when developing. [5]
Euchaetes egle, the milkweed tiger moth or milkweed tussock moth, is a moth in the family Erebidae and the tribe Arctiini, the tiger moths. The species was first described by Dru Drury in 1773. It is a common mid- through late summer feeder on milkweeds and dogbane .
Gomphocarpus physocarpus is a food of the caterpillars of Danaus butterflies, including the African monarch butterfly (Danaus chrysippus orientis). They store the unpleasant tasting and toxic cardenolides from the plants to deter predators. Distinctive colouration alerts predators before they attack. [8]
Caterpillars have been called "eating machines", and eat leaves voraciously. Most species shed their skin four or five times as their bodies grow, and they eventually enter a pupal stage before becoming adults. [23] Caterpillars grow very quickly; for instance, a tobacco hornworm will
Yellow bear on milkweed.. It has a diet of a wide range of low-growing plants, including ground cover like grass and clover. The larvae are defoliators, skeletonizing the leaves they feed on, but only the late summer batch of caterpillars is plentiful enough to do much damage to crops.