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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 ...
The caterpillar food plants--also called the host plants--for gulf fritillaries are members of the genus Passiflora. The adult butterflies use nectar from many flowers, including Lantana plants. The Passiflora host plants are frequently called passion vines ; in some Texan counties where this butterfly's population is high, gulf fritillaries ...
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 ...
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.
The Entomology and Nematology department of the University of Florida writes that the caterpillar is found "from New Jersey to Florida and west to Arkansas and Texas (Covell 2005). It is common in ...
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 ...
Mated females deposit up to 150 small eggs that start out green but turn yellow within 48 hours, indicating fertility. Incubation lasts about six days. Full grown caterpillars pose the ability to chew though sleeves. Fully grown larvae turn a purplish brown before spinning a sparse, wiry cocoon among host leaves.
The caterpillars are black, grey, or white with an orange stripe running longitudinally across the body. There are blue-white lines on each segment with dispersed setae extruding from the body. Pupae are 2-2.5 centimeters and reddish-brown to black in colour. Pupae spin a white silken cocoon, powdered in white and yellow.