Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It's been a few years since I have been able to find any spicebush cats. This year their numbers have cycled back up enough for me to find some. Currently have 4 cats. One just recently molted into the green color phase.

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Wyvern

The Invert Collection:
* 0.0.1 Aphonopelma anax - Texas Tan
* 0.0.1 Aphonopelma chalcodes - Desert Blond
* 0.0.5 Aphonopelma seemanni - Costa Rican Zebra
* 0.0.1 Avicularia avicularia - Pink-toe
* 0.0.4 Avicularia geroldi - Brazilian Blue Pink-toe
* 0.1.0 Brachypelma auratum - Mexican Flameknee
* 1.4.0 Brachypelma emilia - Mexican Red-leg
* 2.1.0 Brachypelma smithi - Mexican Red-knee
* 0.1.0 Cyclosternum fasciatum - Costa Rican Tiger Rump
* 1.1.2 Grammostola pulchra - Brazilian Black
* 0.1.0 Grammostola rosea - Rosehair
* 0.0.1 Psalmopoeus irminia - Suntiger

I too have had an abundance of these this year on our sassafras. While out checking on my sleeved silk moths I find the folded leaves and peak. I took a couple in to get photo ops. Here are a few from 2nd instar (bird-poop phase) to chrysalis forming up to finished chrys. Interestingly, I took two at the same time and reared in identical environment and one formed green chrysalis and the other brown. Green typically means it will come out in same season and brown will winter over. There are exceptions where a green will winter and I certainly hope that is the case here!
These are high res so I posted them separately or they'll take forever to load!

I was sleeping!

Shut the door!

Take that! (showing osmeterium which exudes chemical defense and looks like snake's forked tongue, both to frighten predator – me!

>> Green typically means it will come out in same season and brown will winter over. There are exceptions where a green will winter and I certainly hope that is the case here!

Are you far enough south for them to have a 2nd brood perhaps? I don't know what I would have done with more than 4 cats. One day they suddenly became pigs and decimated the small bushes I had in pots.... leave nothing but sticks. Had to go out a couple of times to dig up some additional saplings. At work we re-designed and rebuilt our butterfly garden in a different location. About half of the spice bush we brought up from the old garden right before summer didn't survive the transfer so I had smaller saplings in pots trying to get them acclimated with more careful monitoring before going in the ground this fall... I was using those for the little cats. I also collected some ripe fruit this week and started prepping them for stratification. Hopefully I will get some to germinate in the spring...maybe get a head start on the cats next year LOL.
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Wyvern

The Invert Collection:
* 0.0.1 Aphonopelma anax - Texas Tan
* 0.0.1 Aphonopelma chalcodes - Desert Blond
* 0.0.5 Aphonopelma seemanni - Costa Rican Zebra
* 0.0.1 Avicularia avicularia - Pink-toe
* 0.0.4 Avicularia geroldi - Brazilian Blue Pink-toe
* 0.1.0 Brachypelma auratum - Mexican Flameknee
* 1.4.0 Brachypelma emilia - Mexican Red-leg
* 2.1.0 Brachypelma smithi - Mexican Red-knee
* 0.1.0 Cyclosternum fasciatum - Costa Rican Tiger Rump
* 1.1.2 Grammostola pulchra - Brazilian Black
* 0.1.0 Grammostola rosea - Rosehair
* 0.0.1 Psalmopoeus irminia - Suntiger

Nope, I don't think so, I'm in NH. We are already having quite cold nights. We had some recent heat waves and it may have been a trigger. They are both in a cage in our breezeway, so if it does eclose it has plenty of room and I will release it. I am told a green will winter over, though I know a brown will not eclose same season. I am sure much like Saturniid silk of bivoltine species. I have had luna brown silk eclose same season but never had white silk winter over.

The odd thing about the swallowtails was that they were reared under identical environment and in fact the one that is green was the later of the two (the smaller in the "duo" photo). I was going to just monitor them on the tree, but I was looking for caterpillars to feed to my side-blotched lizards after tending to my promethea and other Saturniids that I rear on the sass. So I saw the folded leaf and without looking first I just snapped it off and - oops! Sassafras is lousy as a cut plant so I kept the cats and food in my bait box I use for rearing small cats. I decided to bring in another (on purpose this time) for photo ops since it was smaller.

Are you south? How many broods do you get? I still have some cats out on the trees but they should be pupating soon.

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>>Are you south? How many broods do you get? I still have some cats out on the trees but they should be pupating soon.

I'm down near DC. As far as I know we only get one brood as I have never found cats nor see adult spice bush butterflies until starting around late July. I'm wondering if they are something of a migrating species of sorts. Maybe further south they have multiple broods. Perhaps those that overwinter here when they emerge in the spring and fly north which would account for not seeing any... then later those from the south then come up here. not really sure.
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Wyvern

The Invert Collection:
* 0.0.1 Aphonopelma anax - Texas Tan
* 0.0.1 Aphonopelma chalcodes - Desert Blond
* 0.0.5 Aphonopelma seemanni - Costa Rican Zebra
* 0.0.1 Avicularia avicularia - Pink-toe
* 0.0.4 Avicularia geroldi - Brazilian Blue Pink-toe
* 0.1.0 Brachypelma auratum - Mexican Flameknee
* 1.4.0 Brachypelma emilia - Mexican Red-leg
* 2.1.0 Brachypelma smithi - Mexican Red-knee
* 0.1.0 Cyclosternum fasciatum - Costa Rican Tiger Rump
* 1.1.2 Grammostola pulchra - Brazilian Black
* 0.1.0 Grammostola rosea - Rosehair
* 0.0.1 Psalmopoeus irminia - Suntiger

Green phase

Two buddies

Hello!

Beginning to spin

Chrysalis forming

Brown chrysalis

Green chrysalis