Rewilding My Lot

I see a lot of these dark fuzzy caterpillars here. They grow into Salt Marsh Moths (Estigmene acrea). They seem to feed on a variety of plants, which I don’t mind, unless they happen to visit a tiny plant that I am nurturing. If I spot that, then they get hurled to a different part of the garden.

The Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) tree is a host for all sorts of wildlife and there is plenty of its foliage to share. I was particularly taken with the view in the first photograph of this post (crop below), where you can see the caterpillar holding a leaf up to its mouth parts.

Here are some other photos of caterpillar gymnastics taken at the same time.