Today, I will focus on a couple of other critters I found on the Narrow-leaf Morning Glories.
These are the Narrow-leaf morning glory (Ipomoema shumardiana) leaves. I would say pretty holey eh! So this means the critters of some sort have been busy munching. Some the morning glories leaves had no evident of the munchers. Most of the holes on these leaves are older. How you know is if the the edges of the holes have discolored. Thus the search began!
First up is this red and white larva. I brought it home to get a closer look. It turned out it was already dead. It was covered in the silky web and the frass (poop) on the leaf. I do not know if the frass belong to this critter or maybe from whatever made the webbing.
A close look.
Then I moved it around to get a better angle to see the legs and head. Oh my there something else there too! See the green thing?
Not sure what it was either. I assume some kind of egg case.
Back to the red and white larva. I thought at first it was going to be a sawfly, but under the compound scope, I found the five eyes. So not a sawfly, but some kind of caterpillar. There should be six eyes. And this is all I could see.
Mottled Tortoise Beetle (Deloyala guttata) was the second treasure on the morning glory. I believe this was responsible for all the holes or at least part of them.
When it was still, it drew in its antennas.
Here it is on the leaf for a size. It was about 6mm. And yes, I brought it home. But what did I do with it? The adults and the larva only likes leaves in the Convolvulaceae (morning glory family). I have neither.
Road trip and Gracie says yipee!
I suggested to Jim and Gracie we take it to a new home! How could they not agreed to help! It fell to the ground when I was getting it out of the jar so I missed a photo in its new home. Surely, it would find it way! So in addition to the skippers I showed you yesterday, this katydid nymph also found a spot on the morning glory. Many a critter utilizes the morning glories!
And equally important, Gracie got a swim out of the adventure! Indeed, it was a happy ending for the Mottled Tortoise Beetle!
Keep looking!
7 Comments
Such a pretty beetle. Glad gracie got to go play in the water.
Such a pretty beetle. Glad gracie got to go play in the water.
Gracie was a happy camper 😉
Yay for Gracie! Like the photo looking out the car window.
It is much easier to get her happy face in the mirror.
Could the larva be the tortoise beetle larva? Reminds me of a ladybug larvae.
I don’t think so. At least photos I saw looked more like the other tortoise beetle larva I found on the nightshade. July 6 post
Ah it was just a guess. A mystery then!