Desert Milkweed
—and a Tiny Little Friend!
🥳 Happy New Year!
2024 started on a positive note when Hubby and I saw a Bobcat, a Coyote, and 16+ Javelinas (including 2 cute little babies!) in our yard—all on New Year’s Day! These are the “Big Three” most common Charismatic Macrofauna we see in our yard.
We’ve also had Charismatic Microfauna excitement recently: we discovered a new Tiny Little Friend on one of our Desert Milkweeds—a small Queen butterfly larva! By “tiny” I mean only 5/16” long! 🧐
You might be wondering how Hubby and I even noticed a caterpillar that’s only 5/16” long! It’s because we make a point of looking for caterpillars on certain plants we know are host plants for specific caterpillars, especially Desert Senna, Desert Willow, Desert Milkweed & Tufted Evening Primrose. These species are host plants for the larvae of Cloudless Sulphur butterflies, Sphinx moths, Monarch & Queen butterflies, and White-Lined Sphinx moths, respectively (these links are to previous posts in which I shared my art of those caterpillars).
Here’s a photo of our Tiny Little Friend so you can better appreciate it, in all its magnificence. It’s so tiny & so perfect!!! 🥰 Can you believe such a small caterpillar has such an amazing, intricate pattern?!?
We’ve even seen our Tiny Little Friend molt a few times!!! 🤩 Like other caterpillars, as Queen butterfly caterpillars eat and grow larger, their skin (exoskeleton) gets tighter & tighter until it splits. Then the caterpillar sheds its skin to reveal fresh new skin beneath! This process is molting and the stages in-between molts are instars. Queen butterflies go through six instars before becoming a chrysalis (pupating).
Here’s a photo of our Tiny Little Friend two days ago, freshly molted and ready to return to its all-it-can-eat salad bar. The molt is the blackish thing on the right.
🐛 Some Fascinating Facts about Caterpillars
One of my favorite books I read in 2023 was Nature’s Best Hope by Douglas W. Tallamy. In it, Tallamy extols the virtues of caterpillars and explains why they’re essential for maintaining healthy ecosystems.
Here are some fascinating facts I learned in this book:
96% of North American birds rear their young on insects, and the majority of these insects are caterpillars or adult moths.
Many species of birds can only breed in areas with enough caterpillars. What does “enough” mean? Studies have shown that “enough” means thousands of caterpillars for each nest.
In one study, Carolina Chickadees brought 350-570 caterpillars/day to their nests to feed their young. Over the course of a typical nesting period of 16 days (on average), Chickadee parents delivered 6000-9000 caterpillars to feed just one nest of tiny birds until their young were able to leave the nest (after which they still ate caterpillars)!
These incredible numbers of caterpillars are only possible in areas that contain native plants known as keystone species—plants that support the highest number of other species like caterpillars.
Caterpillars and native plants have co-evolved so that caterpillars are only able to survive and grow on specific native plants. “Ornamental” non-native plants may not support any caterpillar species at all!
This shows why planting native plants is so essential to entire ecosystems. The native plants support the insects which support the birds which support the mammals—everything from our Tiny Little Friends all the way up to our Charismatic Macrofauna.
Hopefully you’re inspired to plant more native plants in your yard, or add a potted native plant to your balcony or patio if you don’t have a yard. For more information on the plants that are native to your area, visit the Native Plants Finder page on Tallamy’s website, Homegrown National Park. Your yard can also join ours in becoming part of Homegrown National Park.
I hope you have the opportunity this week to go outside and find something tiny and amazing wherever you live!
“Insects are the little things that run the world.”
- E. O. Wilson
Every time I read your posts and see your art, I come away not only better informed but smiling with enjoyment of your environment. It’s inspiring.
Wonderful find!