Caterpillar damaging cycad

[Tracy]

I've noticed some leaf damage and found two of these what appear to be caterpillar's on the new soft flush of this Encephalartos blue arenarius x latifrons.  The second one I found was in the act of munching and much bigger than the first.  It was still only about 1.5 cm or about .5" long.  Unfortunately, my phone camera wasn't very good at focusing on it, but you can clearly see the damage on the one half eaten leaflet and the circle it's eating out of the other leaf.  Anyone else encountered this insect.  It was brown with the white stripe down it's back.  Since it wanted to crawl away after I removed it from the plant I smashed it before it could get away and find it's way back to this or another flushing cycad in my garden.  As a consequence of that action, there were no additional photo ops!

[Silas_Sancona]

31 minutes ago, Tracy said:

I've noticed some leaf damage and found two of these what appear to be caterpillar's on the new soft flush of this Encephalartos blue arenarius x latifrons.  The second one I found was in the act of munching and much bigger than the first.  It was still only about 1.5 cm or about .5" long.  Unfortunately, my phone camera wasn't very good at focusing on it, but you can clearly see the damage on the one half eaten leaflet and the circle it's eating out of the other leaf.  Anyone else encountered this insect.  It was brown with the white stripe down it's back.  Since it wanted to crawl away after I removed it from the plant I smashed it before it could get away and find it's way back to this or another flushing cycad in my garden.  As a consequence of that action, there were no additional photo ops!

Interesting.. As far as i'm aware, the only butterflies that use Cycads as a host plant are Cycadians, ( Genus Eumaeus ) a species of Blue that lives in Australia, and something called a Leopard Moth in Africa.  May be more, but.. Eumaeus atala is the only one of those that is native to the US ( Florida / maybe far southern Georgia ) One other Eumaeus species from Mexico strays into Texas occasionally.. None occur in CA.   If you find more, you might capture them and send them off to be analyzed. Could be something new, or simply something more common that hadn't been documented using Cycads as a host plant in the area.

[Tracy]

37 minutes ago, Silas_Sancona said:

If you find more, you might capture them and send them off to be analyzed.

Obviously, I'm hoping I don't find anymore.  Plenty of other cycads either flushing or starting to flush right now which I don't want mangled.  I thought about trying to bring it in and use my "real camera" to get some photos, but when it started crawling away, my desire to eliminate it won the day.  Good recommendations.  I have seen this before like the other one I found a few days ago, but they have been about half the size when I've spotted them.  They are normally so small that I end up damaging them just getting them off the leaflet.  This was the most fully developed specimen I have seen and I actually can't confirm whether others I have found in the past are even the same species of caterpillar larvae.

[Dr Sha]

It happened to me, I could not see the caterpillar, did not find it, but the cycad flush had been eaten.

[GeneAZ]

I have not yet had any caterpillar damage on my cycads to this point, after 40 years growing these plants.  I have had disagreeable surprises from grasshoppers and katydids on emergent leaves of latifrons two times -- which is very upsetting once you've waited 4 years for a flush to even happen!

I know I'd be hyper-alert to moths and suspicious butterflies flying in my yard if I had a caterpillar actually munching on new cycad leaves.

 

 

 

[TropiLocal]

I too have experienced caterpillars inside a tightly curled leaf a couple times on a Cycad flush.  Once on E. altensteinii and another on a Dioon actually, I don't recall the species.   I've caught grasshoppers on quite a few, they'll do damage quickly. It's a game (for the predator at least) trying to remove them. You reach for them and they scoot around to the opposite side of the leaf or rachis. 

My bug problem lately has been spiders spinning webs around newly emerging Pachypodium leaves.  I still don't want it happening, buy looks kind of cool as they swirl outward, but are held back slightly at the tips where the spiders attach too. 

Edited June 5, 2019 by TropiLocal

[Palm Tree Jim]

No insects on my flushing cycads to date.

I do approve of you solution on eradication.

[Tracy]

4 hours ago, GeneAZ said:

I have not yet had any caterpillar damage on my cycads to this point, after 40 years growing these plants.  I have had disagreeable surprises from grasshoppers and katydids on emergent leaves of latifrons two times -- which is very upsetting once you've waited 4 years for a flush to even happen!

I know I'd be hyper-alert to moths and suspicious butterflies flying in my yard if I had a caterpillar actually munching on new cycad leaves.

 

 

 

It has been very intermittent and selective when I have found them.  Last year one of the last leaves pushing in a flush of my E (arenarius x latifrons) x latifrons had damage from some insect on the leaflets lowest on the rachis which I didn't notice until last minute, but I never saw the culprit.  I also found a tiny caterpillar last year munching on the top leaflets of an inopinus flush.  They seem to have any eye or mouth in this case, for some of the more unusual cycads.  I'm doing frequent inspections of flushes right now because I'm seeing all the cycads which didn't flush earlier in the spring flushing right now.

[Palm Tree Jim]

Any more pests on the cycads?

[Gonzer]

Dipel (BT) is the best pre and post infestation remedy for chewing critters. Very safe (used on veggies), very cheap, and for the amount they sell you you,'ll have enough for your grandkids to use.