One of our readers sent us a great picture of a yellow caterpillar with black eyespots. In doing our research, we noticed  that it is the Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillar. It seems that these caterpillars love to come out in the fall because we had many of our readers asking about them.

The Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars are found mostly in the United States in the southern regions, but have also been seen in the west in states like Colorado. These caterpillars belong to the Papilo Troilus family. When the eggs are laid, they are done so singly and underneath leaves. These caterpillars like to hide in their cocoon in the day time and wake up at night to find food. The young Swallowtail caterpillars will eat parts of the leaf where they are sleeping and as they eat it, they begin to fold the leaf over until it is completely covering them. They like to do this for protection to hide from any predators that could be looking for food.

The younger Swallowtails are brownish green in color and as they age, they turn into the bright yellow color that our reader saw when she sent us the picture. Many people think that these caterpillars look a lot like snakes because of the eyespots on their heads. We have mentioned before that these caterpillars have eyespots as a form of protection from predators. These eyespots remind their predators of snakes and this helps to keep the Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars safe.

Quite a few species of caterpillars do pupate in the fall and many of our readers have been finding those caterpillars. Swallowtails seem to be just one of the families of caterpillars that can be spotted throughout the fall in gardens and yards. The Spicebush Swallowtails got their name from one of the trees that they like to live in, the spicebush tree. They also can be found on sassafras trees, prickly ash trees, sweetbay trees, tulip trees, and redbay trees.

In summary, our reader sent us one of the cutest pictures of a caterpillar that we have seen. This picture is the Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillar in its final stage as a caterpillar. These can be found in gardens mainly in the fall and they are quite a treat to look at. They will grow to be a few inches in length and when they are fully grown, they turn into a beautiful black and blue butterfly.

 

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