Comments for
Black caterpillar with yellow dashes on side ( Red Admiral butterfly caterpillar)

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Red Admiral butterfly caterpillar
by: Moni

Jeanette
Perhaps you should plant more nettles for them next year?! :-)
Will be interested to see if the reddish ones live into butterflies or if they are indeed parasitized?
Was it the reddish that you found on the steps or also the black ones?

Again, thanks
by: Jeanette

Oh my, they looked so different, I'm really surprised to find out that they are one and the same species. Some of the other caterpillars were that lovely reddish brown colour but the same yellow dashes as these black ones.
So I have lots of lovely butterflies to look forward to. Pity so many caterpillars didn't make it, they went looking for more food after the nettles were eaten. Many can be found shrivelled on our garden shed step:-(
Thanks so much.

Red Admiral butterfly caterpillar
by: Moni

Jeanette
This is the red admiral caterpillar. See this photo on bugguide - http://bugguide.net/node/view/117023/bgimage
These caterpillars do like to eat nettle. Great find!!
As noted in your photo of the reddish caterpillar, I think this is the way they should look while the red one was parasitized. If you look at other images on this web site you will see they do vary...as they are different colors at different stages of development.

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