Hi
Pick them off they will cause havoc to your plants.(please dont use
chemicals though).
The black stuff IS caterpillar droppings.
I had an infestation of these on my calendula one year....devastation!!!!!
Roy

"Kostas Kavoussanakis" wrote in message
q.np.hx...
Hi,

I was wondering why the new leaves of my giant hollyhocks were full of
holes. I just noticed large (5cm) gray, green and brown caterpillars
on them. Any idea what they are? Should I leave them to continue their
deeds or will even the hollyhocks eventually succumb? I have never
seen the hollyhocks flower (seedlings transplanted last September;
leaves then munched away by earwigs).

I also noticed small black balls on the same leaves; poo or eggs? Or
just "dirt"?

TIA,
Kostas

Hi Kay
I am sorry I didnt mean I had THOSE caterpillars just an infestation of some
sort that I thought would be dealt with naturally (i do not use chemicals of
any sort).But in this instance were not and completely devastated the
plants.
I have not had this happen before or since.
Roy
"Kay Easton" wrote in message
...
In article .hx,
Kostas Kavoussanakis writes
Hi,

I was wondering why the new leaves of my giant hollyhocks were full of
holes. I just noticed large (5cm) gray, green and brown caterpillars
on them. Any idea what they are?

Mallow skipper Carcharodus alceae '..up to 23mm, fairly stout ... body
greyish green, tinged with blue; collar behind head conspicuous, banded
with black and yellow; spiracles (breathing holes in skin) yellow with
black rims; head large, black' 'caterpillars live in shelters
constructed from spun, folded leaves'
Larentia clavaria '.. up to 32 mm; green, sometimes yellowish betwen
segments, with whitish dots and black spiracles; a brown or pinkish line
extends down the middle of the back and a dark line along each side;
head whitish with grey-green markings' 'When the caterpillars are
disturbed, they drop to the ground, curled up to resemble mallow seeds'
(1)
Moths from both are smallish mottled brown things.

Should I leave them to continue their
deeds or will even the hollyhocks eventually succumb?

Possibly. Caterpillars have big appetites. Can you find some mallow
plants nearby to transfer them to?

I have never
seen the hollyhocks flower (seedlings transplanted last September;
leaves then munched away by earwigs).

I also noticed small black balls on the same leaves; poo or eggs? Or
just "dirt"?

Poo

(1)carter and Hargeaves: A Field Guide to caterpillars of Butterflies
and Moths in britain and Europe, pub Collins.

--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

On Sun, 6 Apr 2003, Kay Easton wrote:

In article .hx,
Kostas Kavoussanakis writes

I was wondering why the new leaves of my giant hollyhocks were full of
holes. I just noticed large (5cm) gray, green and brown caterpillars
on them. Any idea what they are?

I knew I was careless in my description: I have two (one: green; two:
gray), possibly three (brown?) types of caterpillars.

Mallow skipper Carcharodus alceae '..up to 23mm, fairly stout ... body
greyish green, tinged with blue;

Not sure I have this (and I am off sick, so I won't go out looking for
them today). The gray ones looked to be a dull colour (I went close
with a macro lens).

Larentia clavaria '.. up to 32 mm; green, sometimes yellowish betwen
segments, with whitish dots and black spiracles; a brown or pinkish line
extends down the middle of the back and a dark line along each side;
head whitish with grey-green markings' 'When the caterpillars are
disturbed, they drop to the ground, curled up to resemble mallow seeds'

Probably have these: they look lime-green, matching the hollyhock
leaves. Could see no other colours yesterday.

Possibly. Caterpillars have big appetites. Can you find some mallow
plants nearby to transfer them to?

Not to my knowledge (not that I would be able to recognise them).

(1)carter and Hargeaves: A Field Guide to caterpillars of Butterflies
and Moths in britain and Europe, pub Collins.

Excellent posting, thank you very much.

Kostas (thanks to the other contributors to the thread too).

In article .hx,
Kostas Kavoussanakis writes
On Sun, 6 Apr 2003, Kay Easton wrote:

In article .hx,
Kostas Kavoussanakis writes

I was wondering why the new leaves of my giant hollyhocks were full of
holes. I just noticed large (5cm) gray, green and brown caterpillars
on them. Any idea what they are?

I knew I was careless in my description: I have two (one: green; two:
gray), possibly three (brown?) types of caterpillars.

I hope it's only two! My book reckons there's only two species that
attack plants of the mallow family.

Possibly. Caterpillars have big appetites. Can you find some mallow
plants nearby to transfer them to?

Not to my knowledge (not that I would be able to recognise them).

They have similar leaves to hollyhock. They're often covered with orange
spots of rust fungus (though usually later in the year). Unlike most 5
petalled flowers, mallow family flowers have complete spiral symmetry -
each petal is under one neighbour and over the other. And they have a
sort of central tower with the stamens on. But all this is later when
they flower, which is a bit late for you now.

Or you could pick the caterpillars off into a box and put in several
sorts of leaves to see if they'll eat anything else. Or you could just
wait, and if your hollyhocks seem to be losing, pick of the caterpillars
and squash them.


--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

Kay Easton wrote in message ...
In article .hx,
Kostas Kavoussanakis writes
Hi,

I was wondering why the new leaves of my giant hollyhocks were full of
holes. I just noticed large (5cm) gray, green and brown caterpillars
on them. Any idea what they are?

Mallow skipper Carcharodus alceae '..up to 23mm, fairly stout ... body
greyish green, tinged with blue; collar behind head conspicuous, banded
with black and yellow; spiracles (breathing holes in skin) yellow with
black rims; head large, black' 'caterpillars live in shelters
constructed from spun, folded leaves'

The Mallow Skipper _Butterfly_ does not occur in the UK as a resident
breeding species.

http://www.butterfly-guide.co.uk/spe...pers/bret6.htm


Larentia clavaria '.. up to 32 mm; green, sometimes yellowish betwen
segments, with whitish dots and black spiracles; a brown or pinkish line
extends down the middle of the back and a dark line along each side;
head whitish with grey-green markings' 'When the caterpillars are
disturbed, they drop to the ground, curled up to resemble mallow seeds'
(1)
Moths from both are smallish mottled brown things.

This is the Mallow Moth and the caterpillars are active at around this
time of year.

http://cgi.ukmoths.force9.co.uk/show.php?id=1776


What you said earlier about caterpillars eating only one plant species
is generally true. However, some are more generalist feeders. This is
particularly the case with some of the moths. For example. I have yet
to find anything that the Garden Tiger moth will not eat. It will even
eat Japanese Knotweed although it seems to prefer other things. I
haven't tried it on Leylandii (yet) :-)

--
Neil Jones- http://www.butterflyguy.com/
"At some point I had to stand up and be counted. Who speaks for the
butterflies?" Andrew Lees - The quotation on his memorial at Crymlyn
Bog National Nature Reserve

On Mon, 7 Apr 2003, Kay Easton wrote:

In article .hx,
Kostas Kavoussanakis writes

On Sun, 6 Apr 2003, Kay Easton wrote:

Possibly. Caterpillars have big appetites. Can you find some mallow
plants nearby to transfer them to?

Not to my knowledge (not that I would be able to recognise them).

They have similar leaves to hollyhock. They're often covered with orange
spots of rust fungus (though usually later in the year).

Thanks for the description. I just found out what the orange spots on
my hollyhocks are. I will attack as quickly as I can with something
containing sulphur.

Or you could pick the caterpillars off into a box and put in several
sorts of leaves to see if they'll eat anything else.

Well, I did just that and fed them a plantain (I think it's called)
leaf. They ate part of it but looked distressed to me. I released them
away from the hollyhocks and they have fled/been eaten by something.

Kostas (time to spray the roses with sulphur anyway)

X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.8/32.553
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 13
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 00:57:56 +0100
NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.159.36.219
X-Complaints-To:
X-Trace: wards.force9.net 1050105850 212.159.36.219 (Sat, 12 Apr 2003 01:04:10 BST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 01:04:10 BST
Organization: Customer of PlusNet
Path: news7.nntpserver.com!newsfeed-east.nntpserver.com!nntpserver.com!skynet.be!skyne t.be!landlord!wards.force9.net.POSTED!not-for-mail
Xref: news7 uk.rec.gardening:134564

On Fri, 11 Apr 2003 20:14:54 +0100, Kostas Kavoussanakis
wrote:


Kostas (time to spray the roses with sulphur anyway)

Is that a remedy for rust?

Huss

Grow a little garden

spam block - for real addy, reverse letters of second level domain.

"Hussein M." wrote
Kostas Kavoussanakis wrote:
(time to spray the roses with sulphur anyway)

Is that a remedy for rust?

.... and can I ask if that rust is the same as rust on other plants, or are
these different diseases for specific species? Thanks.

Sue

On Mon, 14 Apr 2003, Sue wrote:

"Hussein M." wrote
Kostas Kavoussanakis wrote:
(time to spray the roses with sulphur anyway)

Is that a remedy for rust?

http://www.backyardgardener.com/pren/pg70.html

That's not the initial page I read, btw (so there's more :-)

... and can I ask if that rust is the same as rust on other plants, or are
these different diseases for specific species? Thanks.

I think that I read (after the previous answers on my problem) that
Hollyhocks and Marrows share this kind of rust, which is specific to
them.

Obviously not an expert.

Kostas (I hope you don't mind me answering 2 in 1).

In article . hx, Kostas
Kavoussanakis writes
On Mon, 14 Apr 2003, Sue wrote:

"Hussein M." wrote
Kostas Kavoussanakis wrote:
(time to spray the roses with sulphur anyway)

Is that a remedy for rust?

http://www.backyardgardener.com/pren/pg70.html

That's not the initial page I read, btw (so there's more :-)

... and can I ask if that rust is the same as rust on other plants, or are
these different diseases for specific species? Thanks.

I think that I read (after the previous answers on my problem) that
Hollyhocks and Marrows share this kind of rust, which is specific to
them.

Obviously not an expert.

Are you sure you meant 'marrows' and not 'mallows'?
Hollyhocks are in the mallow family (mallow as in marshmallow, which
used to be made from IIRC the roots of the marsh mallow plant)

--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

On Sat, 19 Apr 2003, Kay Easton wrote:

In article . hx, Kostas
Kavoussanakis writes

I think that I read (after the previous answers on my problem) that
Hollyhocks and Marrows share this kind of rust, which is specific to
them.

Obviously not an expert.

Are you sure you meant 'marrows' and not 'mallows'?
Hollyhocks are in the mallow family (mallow as in marshmallow, which
used to be made from IIRC the roots of the marsh mallow plant)

You are of course right (sans voir). Thanks for the correction and
apologies for any confusion.

Kostas
p.s.: I will post the URL of pictures of the Caterpillars soon, in
case you are interested.