Mourning Cloak

[Chris Conlan]

Sounds like a California Tortoishell (sorry, don't have my book with
scientific name handy).  The larvae are very similar to Mourning Cloak and
Ceanothus is a favorite host.  I have seen them defoliate acres of
ceanothus in plague years up near Lake Tahoe in N. CA.

Chris

>Has anyone ever heard of Mourning Cloak caterpillars eating ceanothus?
>A friend found a large number of catepillars on his ceanothus and
>brought me in one. It looked like a Mourning Cloak caterpillar except
>it had yellow spikes instead of black. I continued to feed it ceanothus
>and it's now a chrysalis. The chrusalis is definitely that of a Mourning
>Cloak. The books I have mention only trees as foodplants.
>
>Chuck Vaughn <aa6g at aa6g.org>