Observation date: November 12, 2015
Date notes: first photo taken 11/12/15, others taken 11/20/15
Submitted by: Ansel Oommen
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: The first specimen was found on 11/12/15 wandering the carpet (which is dark green). I suspected that it came in with the overwintering houseplants. A few years ago, I had encountered a cabbage looper around this same time on one of my coleus so I reared it on that for a few days in a container. While it ate the coleus, the frass was extremely watery so just of curiosity, I placed some curry tree leaves (Murraya koenigii) in there as well. Surprisingly, the caterpillar seemed to prefer it and produced dry frass. A few days later, I found a smaller instar caterpillar (looked like cabbage looper) on one of my curry tree plants, of which I have many. Because the leaves dry out fast in the container, I placed the original caterpillar on the same plant as the other one. I would assume curry tree is not a normal host plant and was wondering if this is the first documented case? I was planning to rear them both to the adult stage but the original one had a habit of wandering and I had to place it back on the plant on three occasions (did not look big enough to pupate). I checked up on both of them everyday but the larger one left the plant a few days ago and the smaller one which always stayed on the plant left it as well as of 11/30/15. Otherwise, I would have saved this sighting until I had gotten pictures of the pupal and adult stages. I have more photos with feeding damage as well. Can you check if Murraya is a listed food source, if this is indeed cabbage looper? Many thanks!
Status: Resident
Verified by: lisald100
Verified date: December 14, 2015
Coordinator notes: None.
