I’ve been trying to find some caterpillars in order to raise them and observe their metamorphosis. However, in 6 hours spread over 2 days I found only one (sadly I scared it and it fell in the grass where I couldn’t find it again). What can I do to find more? I try to look at plants with a lot of bitemarks on them, including branches, the back sides of leaves, etc. but with no luck. I don’t know most of the plants I have seen but I also looked at some oak trees and willowherbs. Usually I am outside from 2-4 PM until 5-6.
What are the leps in your area?
Perhaps by looking at seasonality and preferred host plants and/or elevations for eggs and larva of lepidoptera species near you, you can increase your chances of encountering caterpillars.
Welcome to the forum, @miurra!
If you scroll to the bottom of this post, there are a couple of threads on this topic, filled with great tips:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/tips-for-finding-more-beetles-and-caterpillars/
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/a-quest-to-find-moth-larvae-caterpillars-any-tips/
I’m not sure how to answer this question, there are many species. I live in Moscow.
I’m trying to find caterpillars of Nymphalidae\Sphingidae\Geometridae, but really any caterpillar will do.
Thank you.
Just a word of caution that it’s not legal to collect caterpillars or any organisms in many parks with out a permit, at least here in the US. Not sure what the rules are in Russia, but it’s something to be aware of.
Right, what I meant was this:
- find a few species in your area, via range maps etc. Preferably focus on ones that are very common - you’ll likely find them easier due to sheer volume & won’t be risking anything rare/endangered/etc.
- Look up info on a few of these, re: what time of year you can find caterpillars and where they are found (high in trees like webworms? lower, on medium plants? near ground level? Exclusively on milkweeds? Are they considerend garden pests that you’d be likely to find on residential plants? etc)
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- Use what you learn on step 2 to influence where you go looking for caterpillars
Lay your coat under an oak branch or hold an umbrella upside down under a branch then give the branch a sharp whack with a stick. I’d be surprised if no caterpillars fall off. And that way you know what food plant they need. Birch and willow are also good.
Here’s a video I made about people collecting, rearing and studying caterpillars in the US. There aren’t too many process details, though.
For the past several years I have been rearing anise swallowtail butterflies. The experts advise collecting eggs instead of caterpillars because of the potential for caterpillars to have been turned into hosts for parasitoid wasps. That may be hard to tell from observation and you will be heartbroken when, instead of a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, you see wasps which have been feeding on the metamorphosing caterpillar.
I was really lucky to have found a Facebook group dedicated to best-practices for rearing swallowtails and encourage others to find similar groups.
@miurra Did you watch Tony’s video?
Alternatively, you will be amazed and fascinated by the exquisite wasp which emerges when you were expecting just another butterfly.
To be fair, that would be interesting too haha.
How do I tell apart Lepidoptera eggs from other ones? I have seen one clutch of eggs, but I wasn’t sure to what species it belonged to, so I didn’t take it.
Yes, I did