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Life cycle Despite being covered in spikes, gulf fritillary larvae are not a stinging caterpillar, thus they cannot sting you. The spikes are soft to the touch and serve the purpose of scaring predators. Gulf Fritillary caterpillar, Florida, January 2021. In appearance, the larvae are dark orange with small black spines protruding outward from ...
Callopistria floridensis, the Florida fern moth or Florida fern caterpillar, is a moth of the family Noctuidae.It is found from North America (including Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, New Brunswick, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas), [1] south through the Caribbean (including Cuba), [2] Mexico and ...
It is distributed throughout the Eastern United States between extreme southeastern Virginia and Florida, the Southern United States, Mexico, and parts of Central America. The caterpillar has two broods, one in the summer and the other in the fall. Late larvae may stay in their cocoon all winter, and emerge in late spring as an adult. [6]
As caterpillars, they tend to feed on a wide range of host plants. This includes oak, apple, birch, willow, hackberry, cherry and coniferous trees such as fir and spruce.
During the caterpillar stage, Gulf Fritillaries feed on passionflower vines, including maypop (Passiflora incarnata), a native species common in the Southeast. A single, sprawling vine may be ...
At these final stages, the tubercles become blue, yellow or orange, depending on location on the body, while the black hairs are eventually lost. The caterpillars reach maturity in autumn and are about 4 to 4.5 inches (100 to 110 mm) long. [5] Once the caterpillars reach maturity, they spin large brown cocoons longways on trees or wooden ...
When fully grown, the caterpillars leave the natal tree and seek protected places on the ground or under the eaves of buildings to spin their cocoons. About two weeks later, they emerge as adults. Shortly after eclosing from the cocoon, the female moth secretes a pheromone which draws males to her. Mating typically occurs in the early evening ...
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