20/04/2025 - An afternoon walk that was so nice we didn't get back until after the sun set. The weather at the coast was lovely today. Not too warm, not too cold, a nice breeze and plenty of sunshine. Not too busy either. Lots of wonderful wild flowers and birds to see. We took tea with us as I guessed we wouldn't want to rush.

One of the world’s most destructive crop pests, the diamondback moth caterpillar, is also adorably pudgy and green. They’re eating the broccoli in my garden. #insects #caterpillars #gardening

I planted a lot of native #milkweed this year to support the #monarch #butterflies and they were discovered quickly because the milkweed are now full of monarch #caterpillars. This one was found wandering up a stem of mealy blue sage after it and its siblings munched a nearby milkweed down to bare stems.

#Hummingbird chick acts like a #caterpillar to survive
https://phys.org/news/2025-03-hummingbird-chick-caterpillar-survive.html

"Unlike most #hummingbirds, the jacobin chick was covered in long brown feathers... they saw a predatory #wasp approach the chick when the mother was away. As the wasp hovered above the nest, the chick started to twitch its body vigorously, swinging its head from side to side. A few seconds later, the wasp flew away... many #caterpillars in this region have similar-looking brown hairs that can give painful stings"

RE: https://infosec.exchange/users/catsalad/statuses/114222915481743757

Decades of data reveal #hurricanes' unexpected benefit to rare Florida butterfly https://phys.org/news/2025-02-decades-reveal-hurricanes-unexpected-benefit.html paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320725000060

"Their survival relies on two known larval host #plants: torchwood and wild lime... They occupy the forest's #understory, and after a #hurricane, they explode with fresh leaf shoots, which are the preferred food of Schaus's swallowtail #caterpillars... After the hurricanes temporarily knock out their bigger, taller competitors, the host plants flourish."

These dudes nearly ended up in the compost bin. Spotted them in time though and put them back on the Arum Lilly plant they were monching. Apparently these are Cape Hawk Moth caterpillars.