Some interesting local names from Tennessee

bugman

September 6th, 2005 at 12:00 am

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we love your website
Dear Bugman,
First let me say I love your site. It has been the most informative that I have found. My son and I looked everywhere trying to identify an insect and we finally found it here, thanks . We also found out alot about insects that we thought we already knew about. For example, the camel cricket is known as the" blister cricket" here in Tennessee, and the saddle back caterpillar is known as the "packsaddle". They’re just local names I’m sure so it was very interesting to find out their real names. Now I have a question. What ,if anything, does the hickory horned devil turn into? We have them evrywhere here and I’ve always assumed they were just a worm.
Thanks,
Paula
East Tennessee

Hi Paula,
The Hickory Horned Devil turns into the lovely Royal Walnut Moth.

Hickory Horned Devil (August 27, 2007)
Hickory Horned Devil: First Submission of the year other than hatchlings (August 9, 2008)
Citheronia splendens sinaloensis Caterpillar (August 31, 2008)
Hickory Horned Devil (September 16, 2008)
Hickory Horned Devil: First sighting of the season (August 18, 2009)