What are these bugs
Please help ID. The green hairy caterpillar with black spikes was crawling on a log my grandson was target shooting. Photo taken late Sept/early Oct in Brown County, OH (Southwestern Ohio farmland). Green caterpillar walking on a board under a green ash tree on the farm 9-26. How do I know if you have ID’d this photos when I go to your website? Thanks.
Mary Jo White
Hi Mary Jo,
This is some type of Dagger Moth. We try to write directly to people and we post the best and most interesting letters and photos.
I have finally ID’d the green caterpillar with black spikes. In Caterpillars of Eastern North America by David L. Wagner, pg. 337, Cottonwood Dagger Moth, Acronicta lepusculina, Noctuidae. Yeah!
MJ
Unknown Caterpillar
Hi,
My nephew found this caterpillar on November 17, in the top of an oak tree, in Apopka, Fl. Can you tell us what it is?
Thanks!
Patty W.
Hi Patty,
This is a Polyphemus Moth Caterpillar. It is one of the Giant Silk Moths or Saturnid Moths. We have many photos of adult moths.
What is it?
Hi Bugman!
This is probably nothing extraordinary, however, I have never seen it before. Any Idea what it might be? It was in the lawn near my backdoor. We are having a temperature change from 76 to 60 degrees today. I don’t know if that made him come out or not. I live in North Texas. Let me know what it is if you get a chance, Thanks,
Terry
Hi Terry,
All insects are extraordinary. This isn’t a new species for us as we have several photos of adult Pink Spotted Hawkmoths, Argias cingulata, but these are the first Caterpillar images we have received. We are thrilled to post them. They feed on morning glories.
Tussock moth?
I found this warming in the sun near Sebastopol (north of San Francisco). Some kind of tussock moth? Lovely site!
Joan
Hi Joan,
More specifically, this is a Spotted Tussock Moth, Lophocampa maculata.
Tersa Sphinx – Brown Form
Thanks Mr. Bugman for helping me identify this Tersa Sphinx in it’s brown stage! I found him in the garden yesterday, 11/10/05, and was fascinated. Here are a couple pictures if you want to post them. Thanks for a great site!
Margo,
Atlanta, GA
Hi Margo,
We love trying to identify critters for people, but we really enjoy hearing that they identified them for themselves using our site. Thank you for letting us know of your successful identification.
Question
Hi,
We found this caterpillar in the yard and took some pictures that are attached. Can you tell me what type of butterfly this is? Thanks,
Mary Ruiz
Hauppauge, N.Y.
Hi Mary,
This is a Spicebrush Swallowtail. They feed on spicebrush, sweet bay, sassafrass and other trees. It becomes a beautiful black butterfly with green markings.
Question about the name
August 31, 2009
Hi… a friend was getting my assistance today in identifying a caterpillar. She later said that she found it on your site and that it was a “Spicebrush Swallowtail.” I instantly thought that it should be “Spicebush” Swallowtail (bush, not brush), so I came to your site to investigate. Sure enough, you had four or five entries (found via the search option) where they were called “spicebrush” swallowtails.
I think this is an error and that it should be “spicebush,” but I’m not an entomologist and will defer to your expertise. Just wanted to alter you, or be educated myself. 
Stephanie
Hi Stephanie,
The letter you cite is an older posting to our site, and though we have seen both spellings in our research, we agree that the common name Spicebush is more appropriate. In our childhood, we referred to the butterfly as a Spicebrush Swallowtail, and that name stuck for a long time. Often errors become established as alternate names. Though we are not correcting this spelling in our archive, we do take note and all recent postings are identified as Spicebush Swallowtails.
What is in this cocoon?
I’m in Silver Spring, Maryland and took this cocoon off a tree. Can you tell me what it might be?
Thanks,
Walt
Hi Walt,
Sorry for the delay. This is a Bagworm, a type of moth.
¶ Posted 08 November 2005 § Bagworm ‡ ° Banded Wooly Bear
Hello Daniel,
I took a picture of this fellow on my lawn. Looked it up in my National Audubon Society “Field Guide to Insects & Spiders”. I actually don’t have much luck identifying bugs from this book… but occasionally I get lucky. In its description it stated… “According to superstition, the amount of black in the caterpillar’s bristle coating forecasts the severity of the coming winter. Actually, the coloration indicates how near the caterpillar is to full growth before autumn weather stimulates it to seek a winter shelter.” It doesn’t really explain how it overwinters, or where. Do they burrow underground? Cocoon themselves up?
Thanks!
Yvonne
Barrie ,
Ontario
Hi Yvonne,
The Banded Woolly Bear is the caterpillar of the Isabella Tiger Moth. The caterpillar sheds its hairs forms a cocoon from the hairs. It pupates inside the hair shell.
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