After another trek out to the butterfly weed with nary a butterfly to be seen...and no obvious signs of monarch caterpillars munching away, I eventually decided to check out one of the spicebushes closest to the house. There I found evidence that something had been munching away at the leaves. Moreover, I found a leaf or two folded over. After gently prying one or two open, I took a blurry picture or two of whatever was inside--later, on closer inspection of the photos, they seem to be tiny spiders...not the caterpillars I was hoping for. However, that was no huge disappointment being that I'd already spotted what I was looking for before I went in to upload the pictures.
In the fold of one larger leaf, I found what I'm assuming is a spicebush butterfly larva. I'll check with the people on WildlifeGardners to see if I'm right.
~smile~ This helps with the disappointment of not seeing any butterflies or monarch larvae yet this year. Obviously, a butterfly had to be in the yard to lay eggs, or I'd not have this cool-looking caterpillar to post about.
