Why Are My Trees Wilting?
A recent cold snap brought frost to many parts of Ohio. Some trees, especially those with new tender leaves were more heavily impacted than others.
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Catalpa
First Generation Catalpa Hornworms
I came across a collection of first-generation catalpa hornworms (Ceratomia catalpae) feeding on a southern catalpa (Catalpa speciose, family Bignoniaceae)) planted in a county park in southwest Ohio. The caterpillars were 2nd instars when I found them on Monday; however, these native moth caterpillars develop rapidly.
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Last Hurrah for Catalpa Hornworms
Participants in the Greater Cincinnati BYGLive! Diagnostic Walk-About held this past Monday in the Boone County Arboretum (Union, KY) viewed second-generation Catalpa Hornworms (Ceratomia catalpae) enjoying a last hurrah before pupating this season. Their discovery led to a discussion on host preference, parasitoids, and a virus spun out of a wasp's genome
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Season Finale for Catalpa Hornworms
boggs.47@osu.edu
Mon, 09/03/2018 - 16:00
Catalpas (Catalpa spp., family Bignoniaceae) have long been one of my favorite trees. Both the Northern Catalpa (C. speciose) and its shorter southern cousin, S. bignonioides, sport huge, orchid-like flowers that attract a bevy of pollinators, particularly bumble bees.
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Enjoy the Orchid-Like Catalpa Blooms!
I'm an unabashed lover of catalpa trees. Yes, they are messy, but so are many of our "preferred" native and non-native landscape trees. I loathe the subjective tree descriptor of "messy" because it removed so many wonderful trees from our landscape palette (e.g. sycamores).
Of course, catalpas do occasionally play host to hungry hordes of their very own caterpillar; catalpa hornworms are the larval form of the catalpa sphinx moth (Ceratomia catalpae). The caterpillars only feed on catalpa trees. However, as I discovered with a huge northern catalpa (Catalpa...
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