Page 196 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

BUTTERFLY CATERPILLARS

FAMILY Nymphalidae
TRIBUTION
DISTRIBUTION Eastern North America into Mexico
DIS
DISTRIBUTION
HABITAT
HABITAT T Forest woodlands
HABIT
A
HOST PLANTS
HOS
HOST PLANTS S Hackberry (Celtis spp.)
T PLANT
NOTE
NOTE Gregarious caterpillar that becomes solitary as it matures
TE
NO
T
CONSERVATION STATUS
CONSERV
TION S
A
TUS
A
CONSERVATION STATUS Not evaluated, but secure throughout most of its range
ADULT WINGSPAN
1⅝–2¾ in (42–70 mm)
CATERPILLAR LENGTH
1 in (40 mm)
ASTEROCAMPA CLYTON
TAWNY EMPEROR
194
BOISDUVAL & LECONTE, 1835
Young Tawny Emperor caterpillars feed and live together after
hatching from a mass of several hundred eggs laid by the female

butter y on mature hackberry leaves. Half-grown larvae turn
brown in the fall, when groups of about ten silk several leaves
to a branch to make a nest for the winter. In spring, they become
solitary and rest on the underside of a leaf curled downward
with silk. The green pupa is attened for its entire length against

Actual size the underside of a leaf or twig and attached to a silked spot on the
leaf by just a ⅛ in (3 mm) area of tiny hooks on the abdomen tip.

The larvae resemble those of the Hackberry Emperor
The Tawny Emperor caterpillar is light green (Asterocampa celtis), which usually feed on younger, tenderer
with some whitish stripes and markings, and it hackberry leaves than A. clyton. Although Tawny Emperor
has two sharp tails and two multipronged antlers
on the head. The similar Hackberry Emperor butter ies are generally uncommon or rare, they sometimes
caterpillars have longer antlers and are usually
solitary on hackberry leaves, even when young. explode in numbers locally. When this occurs, the subsequent
caterpillars can almost defoliate some trees. Adults often glide
with wings spread, and they prefer to feed on tree sap, rotten

fruit, or even decaying carrion, rather than owers.