Starr County Butterflies
Egg
Neonate
First instar
Second instar
Third instar
Fourth instar
Fifth instar
Reddish chrysalid
"Dirty" green chrysalid
Fresh adult Tailed Orange
In August, 2024, I watched a female Tailed Orange oviposit (or so I thought) on its regular host plant, Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata). I searched the plant and those nearby, finding 3 caterpillars and 2 eggs. When the first adult emerged, I was disappointed to realize I had reared Little Yellow instead of Tailed Orange! Well, this was not the first time I was mistaken about the identity of eggs I collected after seeing a female placing eggs.
Hearing my story, Richard Boscoe graciously provided me with 3 females at the end of October. I shortly had numerous eggs and released the ladies. Rearing was straightforward, except that we were in a dry period and I had to quite a bit of driving to locate enough acceptable food to get the caterpillars through. (Mesquite has been reported as a host plant for this species; however, it did not occur to me at the time to try it, and in any event it seems an unlikely host.)
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The chrysalids showed a surprising variety of color forms. Two are shown to the right. The reddish color seemed to predominate; but a good number were green with varying amounts of brown splotches. The adults emerged in November, and they were all the plainer warm/dry season form (which matched the conditions of the time). The journey from egg to adult took approximately 3 weeks.
Little Yellow and Tailed Orange are closely related species, both use Partridge Pea, and their caterpillars are similar. Regarding older caterpillars: above the lateral white/yellow stripe that both species bear, Little Yellow has a dark green stripe, and another along the dorsum (the back); Tailed Orange caterpillars do not have these dark green stripes. There are other differences, but I find the stripes the easiest way to separate the two species.