"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
I shared photos of caterpillars of the goatweed leafwing last year. Last month, the WGNSS Nature Photography Group went to Don Robinson State Park in Jefferson County, MO for our annual late season caterpillar hunt and found quite a few of these guys on thier croton host plants. I was pleased to get a nice photo of a couple of active late instar larvae pictured here.
Goatweed Leafwing
Anaea andria fam. Nymphalidae (Hodges#4554)
Host plant(s): Found on prairie tea (Croton monanthogynus)
Date(s) and location(s): 16 Sep, 2025 – Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park, Reynolds County, MO
Notes: Tonight I feature another target species that I had the good fortune of photographing this season. After finding a number of these caterpillars during a botany trip, Pete Kozich guided me back to the location several days later. Many thanks, Pete! We feared we may have been too late this season. Most of the host plants had severely senesced. But, after a hard search, we were able to find two larvae that had not yet pupated.
The goatweed leafwing is an extreme specialist, feeding only on members of the Croton genus. The apparent distribution of this species is something I find interesting and would love to find out more. I searched in several places this year that had an abundance of several Croton species but with no luck. Looking at the iNaturalist map shows this species to be most abundant in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. They are regularly found in Missouri up to the Missouri River.
We also found a hairstreak caterpillar on the prairie tea. This is most likely a grey hairstreak (Strymon melinus).
