Unknown caterpillar
Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 6:40 AM
My son found this caterpillar on the grass. He was quite a compliant fellow and I placed him on a plectranthus leaf in order to get a better shot. He was quite a chunky caterpillar and when he did move about, his body extended to about 8cm. I’d love to know a bit more about him.
Tami Roos
South of Johannesburg in South Africa
Unknown Caterpillar
Dear Tami,
We did not have any luck identifying your caterpillar on the South African page of the World’s Largest Saturniidae Site. We searched there because we believe your caterpillar is in the family Saturniidae, the Giant Silk Moths. We will try to contact Bill Oehlke to see if he can identify your caterpillar.
Daniel,
I do not think it is a Saturniidae caterpillar. I have nothing that is a good match.
Thanks for thinking of me.
Bill Oehlke
aussietrev wasp foodchain pic
Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 7:08 PM
Hi guys,
Walking along and this wasp came buzzing out from a small shrub and landed on a grass stem to finish off this caterpillar, which I think is one of the Geometridae. Taken in the Capricornia region of Queensland.
aussietrev
Qld, Australia
Paper Wasp captures Caterpillar
Hi Trevor,
We believe this is one of the social Paper Wasps, possibly Polistes tepidus, and we also believe it has captured the caterpillar to feed to larval wasps back at the nest. The Brisbane Insect Page has photo documentation of a Polistes Paper Wasp skinning and “packaging” a large caterpillar into manageable portions for travel. It states: “The wasp cut a large piece from the caterpillar and carefully pack it into ball shape for easy carrying. Then she started to fly back home to feed their larvae. We noticed that the wasp circle around over the caterpillar body a few time before she disappear. We believed she did that to recognize the location so that she could come back after deliver the meal.” Perhaps one of our readers can substantiate this.
Yellow caterpillar in South Africa
Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 10:43 AM
Good day,
A week ago we encountered a big yellow caterpillar in our garden and we have never seen anything like it before. We spotted it walking quite fast across a slab of slate towards a flowerpot.
It is just over 90mm in length. We picked it up and placed it in the garden underneath a bush, where it climbed onto a thin twig (see photo’s – I held a South African R2 coin next to it) and stayed there for the night and following morning. Sometime during the day it disappeared not to be seen again. Could you please help us to identify this creature?
Many thanks
Linda Pollhammer
Boksburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa
Death's Head Hawkmoth Caterpillar
Hi Linda,
This is the Caterpillar of a Death’s Head Hawkmoth, Acherontia atropos. The adult moth is pictured on the movie poster of the Academy Award winning Silence of the Lambs and played a role in the narrative of that film. Regarding the d erivation of name , a ccording to the Biodiversity of South Africa website: “The Death’s head hawk moth is so called because of the skull-like pattern on the thorax . As far as the latin name is concerned, according to Pinhey (1975) : ‘Atropos, one of the Fates, was a daughter of Nox and Erebus and was illustrated… with veiled face and a pair of scissors to cut the thread of life. This is the thoracic pattern of a mask with scissors below it. A sinister but undeserved portrait.’” Excellent information and more photos can be found on the Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic website. The downward curve of the horn is distinctive in the mature caterpillar and is evident in one of your photographs. By needs, we are presuming you want to raise the caterpillar to maturity. Your photo of the yellow caterpillar indicates it is mature, or fifth instar and that it will soon pupate. You should continue to feed the Death’s Head Hawkmoth Caterpillar with leaves of the plant on which it was found, and provide it with several inches of loose soil, not too moist and not too dry. The caterpillar will dig into the dirt to pupate. When its metamorphosis is nearly complete, the pupa will wriggle to the surface, the skin will split, and an adult moth or imago will emerge.
UNNECESSARY CARNAGE
Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 5:55 AM
Hi Bugman,
This basilisk lizard is not a pet. While sitting out by the pond fishing, this female ran over and grabbed the poor caterpillar. It was right in front of me on the ground and I didn’t see it until she grabbed it and it was too late. Do you have any idea what kind of caterpillar it was? It took the lizard around ten minutes to scarf it down. She looked pretty satisfied after she ate her prize.
Jordan
Costa Rica
Basilisk Lizard eats Silk Moth Caterpillar
Hi Jordan,
This is far from unnecessary carnage. That section of our website is devoted to the hapless creatures that are squashed and swatted by humans out of ignorance. This Basilisk Lizard is dining on a Giant Silk Moth Caterpillar as part of the beautiful Food Chain cycle that dictates many creature must eat or be eaten. It is difficult to ascertain the exact species of the caterpillar from the camera angle, but we are relatively certain it is in the family Saturniidae.
Cocoons/Nests
Ok. I’ve attached 3 photos below. Thanks so much, Alanna
Hi Alanna,
There were no photos attached to this email.
On 3/6/09
Hi
I sent some photos late last month and wanted to check back with you
about the identification of them. Our 7 year old girl thoroughly
enjoys all kinds of “BUGS” and can hardly wait for a response.
Thanks so much,
Alanna
Original Letter: Feb 24, 2009, at 9:11 PM
cocoons/nests
I was wanting to know what we should expect
to emerge from these and how to possibly anticipate when (Can we
place these in a jar for observation until then?)?
Alanna
Metter, Ga
Bagworm
Hi Alana,
Sorry for the delay in getting to your response. Additional delays resulted when you resent the request but we had no way of tracking your original letter with images. Thanks for resending the images. You have provided an image of a Bagworm, a species of moth that lives its entire caterpillar life inside a bag consructed of silken thread and bits of plant material from the host plant. Your other cocoon is some Giant Silk Moth. Both the Polyphemus Moth and Luna Moth wrap the cocoon in a leaf, and often the leaf falls to the ground, but occasionally the cocoon remains attached to the tree. It appears as though the tree is a some sort of fruit tree. Your third image which we are not posting, is of a Preying Mantis oothica or egg case.
Polyphemus or Luna Cocoon???
Caterpillar in Amazon
Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Last week of January (rain season), we found this Caterpiller on a tree near a salt water pool in the rainforest of the southern Amazon in Brazil.
The Caterpiller is about 10 cm long. Image 1 shows the full view; image 2 shows the face; image 3 is not the Caterpiller, but a part (flower?) of the tree. It seems the caterpiller is mimicrying.
What, o what kind of caterpiller is this?
Rien Schot
Southern Amazon, Brazil
Automeris species Caterpillar
Hi Rien,
We are posting your image right before leaving for work and haven’t the time to research the species. We are quite certain this is a stinging caterpillar in the genus Automeris, a large genus that includes the North American Io Moth. When we have a chance, we will browse through the World’s Largest Saturniidae Site to see if we can identify the species.
Update:
Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 10:47 AM
Daniel:
What an interesting run of awesome but dangerous stinging caterpillars! I think you called it right, it is in the genus Automeris (Saturniidae : Hemileucinae). This is a very large New World genus (150 species and subspecies by one count), so making an absolute identification is very difficult. However, based on appearance and distribution I believe it can be narrowed down to A. egeus or A. larra. Of the two, I think A. egeus is the closer match. Regards.
Karl
http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/kwaegeus.htm
Thanks for the assistance Karl. Once a word or term enters the zeitgeist of the world wide web, search engines latch onto it quite quickly. A few weeks ago we answered and posted quite a few letters from Namibia.
Black spiny caterpillar
Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 12:43 PM
These caterpillars were found in a garden in Pretoria South Africa on a Kiepersol tree. The caterpillars are about 8 cm long. They are balck (or dark navy blue) with reddish spots on bothe sides of the body and sharop white spikes running next to the red spots on their bodies. I know this is a site for North America but would appreciate it very much if you perhaps have information for me.
Wia
Pretoria, South Africa
African Emperor Caterpillar
Dear Wia,
These spectacular caterpillars are the larval form of the equally spectacular African Emperor Moth, Bunaea alcinoe. The African Emperor Moth is one of the Giant Silk Moths.
African Emperor Caterpillars
2
Unknown Stinging Moth or Butterfly Stinging Caterpillar from Brazil.
Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 9:24 AM
Mr. Bugman, (this is my second e-mail…I am trying to be fortunate enough to get a little of your precious time to help me, so I can explain it to my children.)
This was found under the dirt (which my daughter stepped on it! Very painful!). Also on the banana trees and fruit trees around the area including oranges and also some coconut trees. This was on June 26, 2008 in Juazeiro do Norte, Ceara. Brazil. Winter time in the northeast area, temperature around 30F. I have looked all over the computer archive, also books in the library and book store. Could you help me to identify it. My sincerely gratitude. I hope I am not “Bugging” you too much.
Marianne Targino-VanBeber
Northeast Brazil, City: Juazeiro do Norte
Probably Stinging Saturniidae Caterpillars
Dear Marianne,
We are sorry we did not answer your previous email, but it is impossible for us to respond, or even read, every email we receive. Since we just identified a stinging caterpillar from Mexico, your subject line caught our attention. We can tell you that these are not butterfly caterpillars, but for the moment, the best we can provide is that they are moth caterpillar , possibly related to Buck Moths or Io Moths in the family Hemileucinae. We will try to do some additional research when we have time, or perhaps one of our readers will be able to provide you with an identification.
Hi Daniel and Marianne:
Unfortunately the picture is a little fuzzy and it is difficult to make out details. Finding them “under the dirt” is a bit confusing as well. However, let’s try something and perhaps Marianne can help us out with some more information. They look like large caterpillars (?) and my first inclination is to suggest that they are Saturniid moths (family Saturniidae). They look like they could be in the genus Periphoba, possibly P. hircia which is common throughout northern South America. However, there are several Periphoba species found in that part of Brazil and they apparently are all quite similar. For comparison, I have included links to P. hicia and P. arcaei, a related species that is primarily from Central America. All caterpillars in this genus are capable of inflicting an extremely painful sting. Regards.
Karl
http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/kwphircia.htm
http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu/Wadults/photopage.lasso?photocode%20dotj=DHJ25358.j
Dear Daniel,
Thank you very much for your reply.
I also want to thank Karl’s comments.
That day it was “rainning” green caterpillars. I wonder if one fell from the tree and was covered with dirt by accident and eventually my daughter stepped on it!
I was kind of scared to get any closer to one to take a better picture; but they were about the size of an index finger.:)
Marianne
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