Saturday, June 09, 2007

Got Milkweed?


Of the dozen or so milkweed plants growing in my boulevard, this caterpillar preferred the smallest. Perhaps the young leaves taste better.

The caterpillar in the photo disappeared later in the day. It turns out that monarch caterpillars are quite vunerable to marauding bands of nature-loving children who scour the neighborhood, plucking leaves bearing eggs or small caterpillars in the attempt to "raise" them in their homes.

Such is life.

7 comments:

Iowa Gardening Woman said...

I am going to check my milkweed tomorrow! Great photo.

Peter Hoh said...

Thanks, IGW. I took a lot of photos to get one that I liked. I put a piece of cardstock behind the plant to get a neutral background. Otherwise, the mostly green background would have made for a confusing picture.

It was very sunny when I took the photo, so I had someone stand so that their shadow fell over the milkweed and the cardboard.

Bissage said...

Happy day after flag day!

That's a cute caterpillar.

Ever see one of these babies?

Yuk!

Peter Hoh said...

That is a scary looking bugger. I've seen some strange caterpillars, but I don't think I've seen that one before.

reader_iam said...

You just knew I'd have to up the comment count! (But I see I wasn't first.)

; )

Peter Hoh said...

Thanks, reader iam. You're always welcome.

Jonathan said...

Beautiful photo.

I recently ran across a similar caterpillar.