I have a passion flower in my back yard, i am in extreme south
louisiana..50
miles southwest of new orleans.

the first year that we were visited by the gulf fritillary butterfly,
and
the show that followed fascinated us. the butterflies, the eggs they
laid,
and the gorgeous, fat orange caterpillars..and then the cyle starts
over.
we are on our 4th year now..

i notice that "orange" things are attracted to the passion
flower...mostly,
i see clusters of orange assassin bugs...the butterflies are
magnificently orange, their eggs are....orange. the plump beautiful
caterpillars are beauties...and they're ORANGE....

are the assassin bugs after the eggs, the caterpillars? is there
anything i
can do to deter the assassin bugs, if they indeed are harmful to the
butterfly
cycle...?
Thanks.
Perry

On Aug 2, 9:05*pm, Jangchub wrote:
On Sat, 02 Aug 2008 21:02:19 -0500, Jangchub
wrote:





On Sat, 2 Aug 2008 18:40:52 -0700 (PDT), cajunpaisley
wrote:

I have a passion flower in my back yard, i am in extreme south
louisiana..50
miles southwest of new orleans.

the first year that we were visited by the gulf fritillary butterfly,
and
the show that followed fascinated us. *the butterflies, the eggs they
laid,
and the gorgeous, fat orange caterpillars..and then the cyle starts
over.
we are on our 4th year now..

i notice that "orange" things are attracted to the passion
flower...mostly,
i see clusters of orange assassin bugs...the butterflies are
magnificently orange, their eggs are....orange. the plump beautiful
caterpillars are beauties...and they're ORANGE....

are the assassin bugs after the eggs, the caterpillars? *is there
anything i
can do to deter the assassin bugs, if they indeed are harmful to the
butterfly
cycle...?
Thanks.
Perry

Are you sure they are assassin bugs? *Look here and look at the
largest of the photos offered. *I have these nymphs on my passiflora
as well.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...ticulture.tamu....

0696%2520Leaf-footed%2520bug%2520nymphs.GIF&imgrefurl=http://ask.metafilter.com/37099/
Assassin-bug-or-squash-bug-Or-something-else&h=600&w=900&sz=303&hl=en&start*=2&um=1&tbnid=
qNY7g87M_ASgnM:&tbnh=97&tbnw=146&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsquash%2Bbug%2Bnymphs%2*6um%
3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-USfficial%26sa%*3DN

CUT AND PASTE PLEASE!- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

those little bugs *look* something like my little bugs, but the rear
ends of mine are all orange, no black spikes on their rear...but their
butts are kind of *hiked up* like your photos..so if they are the
squash bug, what's their purpose?
perry