caterpillar individuality

[vigilante]

Some explore flowers and pods without biting them.
Some, eating flowers /pods, will stay with leaves when I relocate them on same plant or to another that also has flowers /pods.
Some return repeatedly to eat flowers /pods.
The point: individuals vary, so your responses must vary accordingly.

[Mona Miller]

I'm currently reading "The Monarch Butterfly" by Dr. Fred Urquhart. These were exactly his conclusions. Just like human individuals, individual caterpillars/butterflies vary in their preferences. I see this also from year to year with the different species of milkweeds that they prefer. Some years, they won't even touch butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) and other years they dump loads of eggs on tiny plants. This year I had a large plant of Cynanchum laeve (Sand (Blue) Vine). They didn't lay any eggs on it, but a few feet away, I also had Asclepias incarnata (Swamp Milkweed). They did lay eggs on the Swamp Milkweed. They loved the Asclepias fruticosa (Swan Plant). They laid eggs on very tiny seedlings. I purchased the California Waystation kit from Monarch Watch to obtain seeds of the Swan Plant.

http://shop.monarchwatch.org/product.aspx?p=125522(base)