uninvited guests eating the milkweed -> dogbane/guests ID

[applestar]

We grow milkweed to invite monarch butterflies to our garden every year, so I'm familiar with the other bugs like the bright yellow/orange aphids and the orange and black milkweed bugs (we're starting to see a few), as well as the milkweed tussock moth caterpillars. This year, we have a new species of uninvited guest. They spin silky nests like tent caterpillars, and skeletonize the leaves rather than eating them whole. Older caterpillars appear to make it's own room on a leaf. They have orange bodies with black spots arranged in threes, and have chalky gray (like blueberries) head and whatever the other end is called. I checked all over and they remind me of the parsnip webworm ([url]https://www.whatsthatbug.com/caterpillar_9.html[/url]), except this is a different color and parsnip webworm doesn't have the gray ends. Also, those "feed exclusively on Pastinaca (wild parsnip) and Heracleum (hogweed/cowparsnip)" according to https://bugguide.net/node/view/59781.

Since I haven't found out what they are, I left 4 on the milkweed -- they'll probably finish off the plants they are each on. We'll keep an eye on them and see what they turn into. The rest of the swarm was consigned to the trash -- there were too many of them for the number of milkweeds available even if I was willing to let them have all (just like the tussock moth caterpillars), which makes me suspect they ARE moth larvae. Some birds may have missed the chance to dine on these guys, but, hey, "early bird catches the worm" and this time, the early bird was me!


[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image1175.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image1177.jpg[/img]

[applestar]

So no one recognizes these buggers, huh? I can't find any reference to them on the internet. I've even sent a photo to the bugman (www.whatsthatbug.com) but haven't heard back yet. I'm going to try raising a couple of them in a jar to see what they turn into.

[applestar]

Another update:
I have three of them in a jar, and these guys are eating the leaves of new kind of milkweed that started growing in my front yard this year. They look like this:
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image1198.jpg[/img]
The thing is, when I put a leaf of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) in the jar for them, they wouldn't eat it. They are all still on what remains of the skeletonized other milkweed. Just in case it was a coincidence, I'm putting in two fresh sprigs of each now to see which one they'll migrate to.

Is it possible this new plant is NOT a milkweed? (They sure LOOK like milkweed, milky sap and all....) I'm not sure how these new plants came to be here -- we could have gathered seeds (my kids scatter milkweed puffs all the time) or they might have been from a wildflower mix seed packet (I tossed them around this spring -- don't remember specifically if I sowed the seeds here or not. ) Something else that occurred to me is could these guys be some kind of beetle larvae and have come with the seeds?

This is turning into an interesting science experiment.

[NEWisc]

For the plant, check out Dogbane:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogbane

For the caterpillar, possibly Dogbane Saucrobotys Moth:
https://bugguide.net/node/view/85535/bgimage

[applestar]

Oh great I guess I know what *I*'ll be doing tomorrow.

Thanks for ID'ing the plants and the caterpillars. My plan now is to release the 3 guys in the jar and let them eat up the dogbane! I'll pull the ones that are not likely to be within their meal range. Hmm. I guess I won't pull them just yet so I won't miscalculate and deplete their supply.