"What a thousand acres of Silphiums looked like when they tickled the bellies of the buffalo is a question never again to be answered, and perhaps not even asked." -Aldo Leopold
Last month the WGNSS Nature Photography Group took a side trip back to one of our favorite places – the Roston Native Butterfly House in Springfield, MO. Among other fantastic native leps on display were adult and larval forms of Hyalophora cecropia, or the Cecropia Moth. Named after the legendary King Cecrops of Athens, H. cecropia is the largest moth native to North America. Thanks again to the Roston Butterfly House and to the great volunteers who staff the facility and put up with a bunch of old dudes with cameras.
I’ve tried hunting for caterpillars among my native plants in the yard over the past several years, hoping to find some interesting caterpillars with very little success. This past weekend I was looking around my little prairie patch in the backyard with my UV flashlight and found something exciting. Two large caterpillars feasting on partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata). It took me quite a bit of research to finally identify them as one of the Zale moths (Zale sp.) in the Family Erebidae. I am fairly certain this must be Zale lunata (lunate zale), but according to Wagner in “Caterpillars of North America” and “Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern North America,” Z. lunata and Z. minerea are nearly indistinguishable as larvae. However, because there are no records I could find of Z. minerea feeding on herbaceous plants and Z. lunata is known to feed occasionally on herbaceous plants, particularly those in the pea family, I think it is a safe bet to call these Z. lunata. To test this for certain, I hope to be able to find them again and try rearing one to an adult, which are easy to distinguish between these two species.
15-August update:
A couple of nights after taking these photos, I visited the prairie patch and found four of these zale caterpillars. I collected one and put it into a flight cage along with some freshly cut partridge pea.
After not being able to find the caterpillar for the past two days, I finally discovered that it had pupated and has used some of the vegetation to cover its cocoon. There’s a chance it might eclose this year. If not, I’ll have to wait until the spring, assuming it survives that long. Here’s a photo of its pupation site.
Zale sp. cocoon
28-August update:
Upon returning from work today, I found that my Zale had eclosed! I took a few photos and I think we can now definitely say this is Zale lunata.
I posted about the Orgyia leucostigma (white-marked tussock moths) that I reared last year to adulthood and documented their breeding and oviposting on my back porch. In mid-April, the young had emerged from their egg case after overwintering on the porch. Here are some photos of these extremely tiny little ones. It was a pretty difficult task as these guys were not much larger than an average grain of sand. Additionally, shortly after emerging they just wanted to spin a thread and balloon away on the wind, which is their primary method of dispersing. I used a small paintbrush to try and gently move them to some leaves, but their threads would quickly get wrapped around their long setae. After getting some photos, I left most of them to disperse in the backyard.
I believe this is the last I have to share from this year’s caterpillar season. Overall, I think this was a successful season and I had a lot of fun finding some cool species. I still have tons to learn and species to find. I’m hoping to continue this next year and hopefully get going on early season hunting. This is quite difficult because the spring and early summer are great for things like birds and plants as well. I need more Saturdays!
I’ll finish up with this fantastic late season walnut sphinx caterpillar (Amorpha juglandis) that I found at Onondaga Cave State Park in late September. I finally noticed that this genus name, Amorpha, is shared with one of my favorite groups of plants, the false indigos, like Amorpha fruticosa. I looked this up and Amorpha comes from Greek for “shapeless” or “deformed.” This genus of plants received this name due to their having only one petal on their flowers, unlike the rest of the Fabaceae.
Amorpha juglandis has been in a few other genera and now is placed in it’s own monotypic genus. I have not been able to find out which particular characteristic provides the “deformed” nature for the Amorpha epithet. If you know this, I’d be grateful to learn this.
Red-crossed Button Slug Tortricidia pallida fam. Limacodidae Host plant: red oak member (Quercus sp.) Dates found: 14, Sep, 2024 Locations Found: Kaintuck Hollow, Phelps County, MO Notes: Although we supposedly have two other button slug species in Missouri, this is the only one I’ve been able to identify. Very common.
Silvery Checkerspot Chlosyne nycteis fam. Nymphalidae Host plant: yellow wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia) Dates found: 30, Jun, 2024 Locations Found: Young Conservation Area, Franklin County, MO Notes: This species overwinters as third instar caterpillars.
With books, apps and internet sources, I think I did a fair job of identifying most of the caterpillars that came my way this year. There are still a few that I have not been able to identify, however. I placed the following on iNaturalist and Bugguide months ago, but so far no experts have given their opinions. If you have any ideas that could help, I’d appreciate to hear them.
This first cute little one I found at Englemann Woods N.A. in Franklin County, MO in late June. I wish I had taken more photos. I think this could be one of the punkies (fam. Nolidae), but it might also belong to one of the other spiney families.
This next one is part of a group I really loath to try to identify – nondescript green cats. I’ve gone through the guides numerous times but simply couldn’t find a perfect match. It most likely belongs to the Noctuidae family, but that doesn’t narrow it down very far. This was also found at Englemann Woods N.A. in late June and found on white oak (Quercus alba).
Next up is also a group that I haven’t gotten the hang of yet. This is likely a tiger moth (subfam. Arctiinae), but I’m not sure where to begin there. Found at Prairie Garden Trust on July 6th. Host plant not recorded.
Finally, a cat that I found in a leaf shelter of Vitis aestivalis at Kaintuck Hollow in Phelps County on July 13th. I believe this might be Herpetogramma aeglealis (fam. Carambidae) but it’s not close enough for me to be certain.
I found this unfortunate little geometrid caterpillar during a hunting session at work back in July. In these photos it is serving as host to some ectoparasitoid wasps in the Eulophidae family. I attempted to rear these but everyone succumbed in quick order.
Splendid Dagger Radcliffe’s Dagger Acronicta superansraddcliffei fam. Noctuidae Host plant: Not recorded Dates found: 17, Aug, 2024 Locations Found: Schoolcraft Prairie, Washington County, MO Notes: Edit – 2/Jan/2026. Science is learning and correcting our mistakes when possible. There have been no confirmed collections of A. superans in MO per Heitzman’s catalogue. The larva of A. superans looks quite similar to the penultimate instar of A. radcliffei, which I now believe this larvae should be labeled as. The primary differences are that A. superans will have black snowflaking on the head, whereas A. radcliffei will have this patterning in red. Another potential option is A. hasta, but I think less likely. All three are cherry/rose specialists. That said, it would not be out of the question for A. superans to be found in Missouri. If any who may have found this post has reason to disagree with my determination, I’d appreciate hearing from you.
A Thousand Acres of Silphiums 