What do harvester caterpillars eat?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

July 30, 2003

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Lycaenidae are the gossamer wing butterflies. The gossamer wings derive their beautiful coloring from two distinctive types of scales: scales with pigments—browns, oranges, and grays—and scales that refract light—iridescent greens, blues, purples, and coppery-oranges. It is estimated that there are five to seven thousand species worldwide. About one hundred species (or species and subspecies) are present in North America. (National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies, Robert M. Pyle, Alfred A. Knopf, 1981)

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Of the gossamer wings, there is a unique subfamily, the Miletinae or "harvesters". Most are Old World species, but one inhabits swamps and wet woods of eastern North America. The harvester (Feniseca tarquinius Fabricius) is bivoltine (two generations) in Canada and the northern states, and multivoltine in its southern range, Florida to Texas. Believed common in some areas, it is seldom encountered possibly because its habitat is away from human disturbance.

Harvester butterflies are attracted to certain trees—ash (Fraxinus), alder (Alnus), witch hazel (Hamamelis), hawthorn (Crataegus), and beech (Fagus). Landing on tender twigs, female harvesters seek out woolly aphids that are commonly found on these trees. Females lay their eggs on the aphids.

The grayish-green caterpillars are carnivorous, the only carnivorous butterfly caterpillars in North America. They feast on woolly aphids and scale insects. Unlike many of the gossamer wing caterpillars that have mutualistic relationships with ants, harvester caterpillars hide from ants. They feed from under a web camouflaged with the empty exoskeletons of their prey.

Like other butterflies, harvesters need sugar water to survive, but they do not visit nectar producing flowers. Harvesters have a short proboscis; they sip the honeydew secreted by aphids and take liquids from carrion. ("Harvester", Jane M. Struttmann, Butterflies of North America, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center)

The Massachusetts Butterfly Club, a chapter of the North American Butterfly Association has a great photograph taken by Dave Small of a female harvester laying eggs on woolly aphids. To view the photograph, click on the link:

Click here to view the photograph

To learn more about Butterflies and Moths of North America, click on the link:

http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/

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