Tropical Milkweed

After mating, they lay their tiny, round, green eggs on their larval food plants, usually on the underside of the leaves. The caterpillars have a horn at the rear end and are commonly green, well camouflaged among the leaves. When they are fully-grown they drop to the ground, spin a loose cocoon and pupate, partially protected by leaf litter. So please, leave your leaves! Using them as mulch in garden beds and around shrubs and trees, helps the plants flourish, benefits the environment and goes a long way toward making our yards wildlife refuges. Garden as though life depends on it ~ because it does! Small changes in our gardens add up to big benefits for our local wildlife.

A wide variety of open habitats, streamsides, fields, gardens, and suburbs.

High

First seen on the northside of St. Thomas island in Estate Caret Bay, November 6, 2020. Based on our research this is the first document sighting of the Snowberry Clearwing moth in the US virgin Islands. We saw the moth several more times during the following months indicating there may be more than one.