Caterpillars themselves are not pollinators, but they grow up to be pollinators. Most cats* feed on fresh green leaves, and many are highly specialized on native plants. If you want beautiful moths and butterflies flying around your garden, you'll need to plant the food plants of the caterpillars, and those are largely native species. Caterpillars are fascinating animals in their own right, and a major food source for birds. Native plants attract the insects, insects attract the birds. This is what biodiversity gardening is all about. The image shows the defensive display of a papilionid caterpillar. All papilionid cats have an osmeterium (forked red structure), or an everscible gland behind the head that emits a foul odor, warding off potential predators (Cat: Papilionidae: "Papilio cresphontes"; plant: Rutaceae: hop tree, "Ptelea trifoliata"). *those of us that love caterpillars refer to them as "cats" for short!
The milkweed leaf beetle is another insect species dependent on milkweeds for survival (a member of the family Chrysomelidae). In our biodiversity garden they are more commonly found on butterfly milkweed (beetle, "Labidomera clivicollis". plant "Asclepias tuberosa").
