Striped Garden Caterpillar
We found this caterpillar eating a milkweed leaf on September 13, 2015. We don’t normally see caterpillars other than Monarchs eating milkweed, so this struck us as unusual.
Aside from its peculiar choice of diet, its main feature was its stripes.
The underbody is pale.
And, it was definitely eating the milkweed, it wasn’t just a lost caterpillar that had gotten into a bad place.
This was one of the cases where knowing the foodplant helped immensely. Several of our caterpillar ID guides have foodplant indexes, and there was only one caterpillar that ate milkweed, and that looked anything like this.
It is the Striped Garden Caterpillar, Trichordestra legitima. They overwinter as pupae, which is why this one was crawling around as a caterpillar this late in the season. While they will, obviously, eat milkweed, they are also keen on a lot of other plants (many of which are common garden plants, like asparagus, beans, and raspberries). The foodplant list is pretty long and varied. Since a number of the things they eat are toxic, I think there are good odds that the caterpillars accumulate the toxins in some way, and the prominent striping is mainly warning coloration.
The moths are fairly big with rust-colored spots, and I’ll probably see them around a yard light one of these days. I’m a bit surprised I don’t have one already, but I’m not seeing it anywhere on the site or in my picture backlog.
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Milkweed tussock moth caterpillar also eats milkweed.
I am taking care of a Striped Garden Catipiller and would like to know what I can feed it using common household food. I am feeding is Rasberry leaves and some broccoli. I think it likes them but, I can not tell. I have had him (or her!) for about 3 days. It loves to move around. Everyday (three times a day) I let it move around outside and get fresh air. During that time I replace anything and spray in some water. Is there anything I can do to make him (or her!) happier? Is there anything I can do to speed up the process of getting it to make a cocoon? Please help me. I want him to have a happy life in my care!