The caterpillars are striped around the girth and are gregarious for the first two instars. The coloration changes dramatically for the last three instars with the body losing its stripes and developing bright red or orange thoracic tubercles and a yellow caudal tubercle. Photo courtesy Univ. The pupa is a dark brown and almost completely fills the tightly woven inner cocoon. Wild promethea cocoons are often found hanging from hostplants after leaf drop as the larvae always spin a strong peduncle that allows the long, slender cocoon to hang from the tree like a Christmas ornament.
Wild cocoons suffer a high parasitization rate.
It is hoped that this alphabetical listing followed by the common name of the foodplant will prove useful. The list is not exhaustive. Experimenting with closely related foodplants is worthwhile. Starred items are successfully used by my father, Don Oehlke, in New Jersey. Search WWW Search pei.sympatico.ca Google is one of my favourite Search Engines and seems to offer the most extensive listing of Saturniidae, Sphingidae and butterfly sites.