I have been looking for larvae in the Arkansas Yucca. Actually specifically I wanted to find a Yucca Skipper larva. No luck yet. In fact, I have not seen a Yucca Skipper adult in North Texas yet. However, periodically I check. They have been report by someone at the grasslands before.
Don’t you just love the fall with the wooden-like stems shooting up? The stems are where the Yucca Skipper overwinters. However, like I just mentioned, I have not found the skipper’s larva in one yet. And I continue to look being the optimistic person I am. 😉
Some yuccas still have seed pods with seeds!
The stem and the pods will stay all winter!
Breaking open a stem to check for larvae! None in this break.
Another break! Larva!
Breaking in several more places and stems, I hit the mother load!
The strands are part of the plant.
Taking a larva out of its pupa cocoon to get a closer look! Now a few of the larvae have been set on my foster home shelf. The larvae look similar to a Yucca moth larva on BugGuide. Possibly the Prodoxus decipiens. Hopefully, one will successful emerge in the spring.
In the movie, you can see part of the cocoon that was its home. Several that I brought wiggled out further and now sit at the bottom of the jar. So maybe I will find that a few of the little white yucca moths can be released next spring. Now that you know the stems are winter homes consider leaving the stems for whatever creatures maybe utilizing them.
Keep looking!
The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know
7 Comments
Congrats on finally finding a larva. Next you get to photograph adults this spring, we hope. Yay!
Congrats on finally finding a larva. Next you get to photograph adults this spring, we hope. Yay!
If you had just broken them open to find them but not brought them to your safe haven, would they be vulnerable to predation with the open stem?
I don’t know. I wondered about them freezing.
I never thought about larva in the stems. Cool.
Can’t wait to see what it is!
🤞🏼
Exciting! I haven’t seen a yucca moth adult or larva 8n a long time.