Please help ID this Caterpillar.
October 18, 2009
I am truly flummoxed about what this Caterpillar is, even after throughly Googling it, looking through my extensive “Caterpillar of N. America field guide, and posting pics of it to another site (Bugguide.net, where the closest ID was “Owlet Moth”…but none of the Owlet Caterpillars look like this). The plant it is on (and ingesting) is “Golden-Aster” (Heterotheca latifolia). It has a series of color combinations and sizes(perhaps ‘instars’?), but all individuals of the largest size look like the pics I am attaching. Dozens showed up suddenly on the plants that grow in very sandy soil all around where I live. I have found them in other N. Texas (Dallas-Ft. Worth) areas. ID help would be appreciated.
Tzila “Z” Duenzl
Horseshoe Bend, Weatherford, Texas

Hooded Owlet Moth Caterpillar

Dear Tzila,
This is an Owlet Moth Caterpillar, more specifically, a Hooded Owlet Moth Caterpillar in the genus Cucullia, probably the Brown Hooded Owlet, Cucullia convexipennis, which can be viewed in numerous photos on BugGuide.  The food plant aster is corroborating evidence of the identification.  Your photos are spectacular.

Hooded Owlet Moth Caterpillar

Ok…thanks Daniel. This was suggested on BugGuide (I submitted my pics for ID – look under “mtwoman”), but when I looked at the BugGuide guide pics of the Brown Hooded Owlet caterpillar, the coloring seemed different enough for me to question that ID. Could the coloring be different (lighter and more orange/yellow than red) because of the instar/age of the caterpillar? Anyway thanks! And thanks for the compliment!! You can see more of my pics on BugGuide under user name  “mtwoman” (for “Mountain Woman”).
Tzila “Z” Duenzl

Hooded Owlet Moth Caterpillars are notoriously variable in coloration.

Heliothis virescens
September 22, 2009
Hi,
Well, the yard has exploded with moths, butterflies and caterpillars – counted 11 black swallowtail cats on the dill and parsley, with countless eggs still to hatch, and found 2 empty chrysallises on the porch rail and landscape timbers in the yard. The snaps are full of Buckeye caterpillars which go nicely with the Buckeye flag hanging from the porch (it’s football!! Go Bucks!!) While inspecting the dill, I found this pink striped caterpillar on the Russian sage that’s planted next to the dill (and under the Ohio State flag). It’s been at least 3 days of searching but I think this comes close to BugGuide’s Tobacco Budworm – the description says it tends to take on the color of the plant it’s eating. It was also getting close to sunset, so the light and the flowers on the Russian sage really helped hide this one. Please feel free to correct the ID – I think we’ve looked at over 8 million pictures of pink caterpillars since Saturday night. Thanks!
Kathleen Haines
Newport News, VA (southeastern VA)

Tobacco Budworm??

Dear Kathleen,
We love the enthusiasm in the tone of your letter.  This looks like it may be a Tobacco Budworm, but we are not certain.  We will post your letter and image and link to the BugGuide page on the species in the hopes that an expert can provide some input.

Tobacco Budworm??

Daniel,
Thanks so much!  I’d actually already been to your site before going to my email and was delighted to see the pictures already there.  You all are terrific and do such a good job!
My daughter is an elementary school art teacher and brought her school’s science teacher over yesterday to “harvest” some caterpillars from the yard.  They took 3 or 4 black swallowtail caterpillars, then went to the local garden center and picked up a few dill plants and are hoping to be able to follow the caterpillar to butterfly saga all the way through.  They also found a fuzzy tan caterpillar out on the green cones – the guy looks like he needs a serious day with a hairstylist – that we’re working on identifying.  And this morning, the snaps were covered with at least a dozen Common Buckeye caterpillars.  It’s all just a great reward for planting for butterflies!
Thanks again for your great site and all the good work you do.
Kathy Haines
Southeastern Virginia

Black and White Horizontal Striped Caterpillar
Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 7:34 PM
My daughter and I found this caterpillar that we cannot find a match for anywhere on-line. I sifted through many of your pics of caterpillars and typed in search information for: black and white horizontal striped caterpillar. Nothing came up. The closest identification we could come up with was catalpa caterpillar but ours does not have a tail thing that sticks up like the photos of catalpas and it seems catalpas are more greenish than white. And there are no catalpa trees in the vicinity that it was found. It was found this month: November on an old gravel logging road that’s wooded on both sides, mostly pine, gum and oak trees.
Laurie and Lindsey
SW Arkansas (Arklatex)

Turbulent Phosphila Caterpillar

Hi Laurie and Lindsey,
Sorry to have taken so long to reply since we recognized your caterpillar as something we had identified in the past, but between work obligations and the slowness of our 5 year old computer, it has taken us longer than usual to identify an image we wanted to post. We found two examples of your caterpillar in our archives dating from September 2005. Back then it also took us days to properly identify the Turbulent Phosphila, Phosphila turbulenta, which ranges in the Eastern U.S. and Canada and feeds on Greenbriar.

showy fall caterpillar
Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 7:16 AM
Dear Friends:
I found this caterpillar in a typical grassy meadow (perhaps brome grass, Bromus inermis), at the beginning of this month (October 2008). I’m sometimes able to figure out things by searching them on-line but this one stumped me. I don’t often see bright caterpillars this late in the year.
thanks,
Gavin Miller
just north of Toronto, ON

Cattail Caterpillar

Hi Gavin,
We are surprised as how quickly we located your Cattail Caterpillar, Simyra insularis, on BugGuide. Because the caterpillar feeds on cattail, smartweed, grasses, sedges, poplar and willow, the habitat includes marsh edges, wooded riverbanks, and generally any damp area where larval foodplants grow.  The adult is also known as Henry’s Marsh Moth.

Black Arch Caterpillar
Dear bugman,
I found this Black Arch caterpillar while frolicking in Shenandoah National Park. I’ve read somewhere that they are rare to unusual, but they are everywhere out here! I’ve greatly appreciated your help in the past and thought you’d like to add this picture to your collection.
Holly
Shenandoah National Park, VA

Black Arches Caterpillar

Hello Holly,
We are happy our site proved helpful with your identification. It seems like the Black Arches Caterpillar, Melanchra assimilis, is correct.  We did some internet research and found some information. The Butterflies and Moths of North America website indicates a very small reported range in Montana.  BugGuide shows more extensive data, reporting the species from Montana, Minnesota, Maine and New Hampshire, but on the information page for the species, BugGuide indicates that it ranges to Virginia.  It is also indicated that the species is “uncommon to rare, according to Charles Covell ” and later  in uncredited information that ‘larvae feed on bracken, sweetfern, goldenrod, st. johnswort, alder, ash, birch, willow. Wagner lists also aster, goldenrod, mullein, raspberry, and tamarack and concludes “primarily a generalist on low-growing plants.’ ”  We find it odd that the caterpillar would be rare with such an extensive list of food plants.  If you say they were very numerous, perhaps the real explanation is that the populations are highly localized and may be quite plentiful where they are found.  We found the previous posting on our site that you credited with providing your identification.  We are very excited to see if a new feature that our web host has provided for our site works properly.  Now, the five closest matching posts will appear as links with your post, which should lead our readership to other posts of the same species.

What’s this one?
Hi,
Can you identify these caterpillars we recently found munching on an Aster plant?
We’re located in Santa Fe, NM.
Thanks!
Tom, Chad, Cole, Owen, and Ryan

Hooded Owlet Moth Caterpillar

Hi Tom, Chad, Cole, Owen, and Ryan,
Are you a Basketball Team? Your caterpillar is a Hooded Owlet Moth Caterpillar, most likely the Brown Hooded Owlet Moth, Cucullia convexipennis. According to BugGuide, the caterpillars feed on the leaves and flowers of asters and goldenrod. BugGuide has not received any submissions of the Brown Hooded Owlet Moth from west of the Mississippi River, so perhaps this is another closely related species in the same genus.