Caterpillar identification needed
Greetings,
Today I discovered a cluster of caterpillars on a Pieris Japonica at my home here in Raleigh, North Carolina. I’m a school librarian (aka “media specialist)” and I plan to bring in a couple of these “specimens” to show the students at our school, Brassfield Road Elementary. Naturally the display would be more educational if I could identify them. I didn’t find a match in my small field guide at home, and I was so impressed with your web site, I thought I’d defer to your expertise. Thanks so much for your help with the identification,
Vicki Sanders Corporon
Raleigh, NC
Hi Vicki,
These are Azalea Caterpillars, Datana major. According to BugGuide, in addition to azalea leaves which they prefer, they “have also been recorded on apple, blueberry, Red Oak, and Bog Rosemary (Andromeda polifoloa ).”
What the…
Bugman, can you help
We have recently found a strange larvae in the garden (photo attached) and have no idea what beetle it might be. It was about 1 1/2 to 2 inches long. We have a wood close to our garden and plenty of strange things regularly appear but never quite this big. Probably quite common but I would be very interested to know what it is. Thanks for your help Regards
Tim Cooper
ps. home is southern England
Hi Tim,
You might be surprised to find out that your unusual creature is a caterpillar, a Lobster Moth Caterpillar, Stauropus fagi. The adult moth is not very remarkable looking, but the caterpillar resembles a crustacean. It feeds on the leaves of oak trees. We generally receive images of rust colored Lobster Moth Caterpillars, and that agrees with images posted online. Perhaps the dark chocolate brown coloration is due to approaching pupation as many other caterpillars change color just before metamorphosis.
Interesting Critter
Hi there,
My neighbor referred me to your site when I showed her these strange little creatures that have taken up residence on my orange tree. They’ve probably been there since last year when I first noticed the “snail trail” they leave on the leaves. I never found the bugs and the local nursery wasn’t able to identify the bug that might leave the snail trail. It nearly killed my orange tree last year. So this year everything was going along swimmingly, my orange tree has quite a bounty of fruit, but I started seeing the snail trails again. I’ve been trimming off the affected leaves as I see them. In hunting out damaged leaves I came across a whole branch in the very back of the tree that was covered with these guys. I thought they were bird poop at first! They really look like it. But on closer inspection I realized they were way too uniform and then I see it looks like they even have a face!! Like little dragons. One even reared its head as I was trying to take the picture. Any ideas? Thanks so much.
Susan
Hi Susan,
You have two different unrelated caterpillars here. The caterpillar that resemble bird poop are Giant Swallowtails, lovely large brown and yellow butterflies whose caterpillars are known as Orange Dogs. The snail’s trail is being made by the Citrus Leaf Miner, Phyllocnistis citrella, the caterpillar of a tiny moth that feeds on the tissues between the epideral layers of the leaves of citrus trees.
Bugs
I found this bug on the leaf of my Red Maple tree, had never before seen this bug can you tell what it is, what it turns into, is it common in Ontario, Canada. Thank you
Kevin Axt
Hi Kevin,
This is a Spiny Oak Slug Caterpillar in the genus Euclea. It ranges through much of the Eastern U.S. and Canada.
Obscure green “boat” bug with suction cup “feet”
LOOOVE the site. Have hatched 2 sets of praying mantis, hatched a female Polyphemus moth who attracted TWELVE(1) males and, also hatched a male Cecropia moth earlier in the summer. Just had a 4″ female mantis attract a male and mate; waiting to see when she’ll lay her egg sack…At any rate, I’ve been a critter gal since my youth and am familiar with many of your typical insects. The attached, though, has me completely perplexed and befuddled. What the heck is it??? It was so neat – slightly less than an inch, bright green, shaped somewhat like a boat, and appeared to have a suction-cup type underside (traveled around on my daughter’s index finger for hours). Sort of an armadillo-type of insect in that it had a hard shell on the outside with a softer section underneath..
Kristin
Hi Kristin,
This is a Slug Moth Caterpillar in the family Limacodidae, but we cannot be certain of the genus or species.
can you identify this for me?
hey guys, i was surfing the internet trying to find out what this thing was. i found it up in a pine tree around 30-40 feet up at work. it is as long as a deck of cards, as one of the pictures shows. ive never seen one before. i live in washington state, near puget sound in stanwood. the place i work is less than a mile from the water. you guys have any ideas what it is? if you could email me back that would be awesome. thanks,
Andrew Smith
Hi Andrew,
We were relatively certain this caterpillar is in the genus Hyalophora, so we tried a websearch. We eventually locted information on the Larch Silkworm, Hyalophora columbia columbia on a Caterpillars on Conifers in the Eastern U.S. website. Hyalophora columbia is found in both eastern and western U.S. There are several subspecies, including Columbia Silkmoth and Glover’s Silkmoth. BugGuide lists the food plants in the west as: “leaves of alder, birch, Antelope Bitterbrush ( Purshia tridentata ), buckbrush ( Ceanothus spp.), buffaloberry, cherry, rose, Russian Olive ( Eleagnus angustifolius ), willow.” The photo you sent on foilage looks like larch to us. We are confident that we have properly identified your caterpillar, and perhaps the list of food plants in the west needs to be updated.
fern green-yellow-red larvae?
Hi Bugman,
My son found this on a rock next to our house in rural southwestern New Hampshire. The rock has some lichen or moss growing on it, and our yard is quite mossy. It may have fallen off a hardwood tree (maple or alder?) that I had recently shaken. Based on what I could find on your site and others it looks related to lacewing, sawfly or other wasp larvae – but I couldn’t find anything with the frond like antennae or the round green leaf like plates along it’s body. Thanks for your help!
In addition to oak, the Spiny Oak Slug Caterpillar, Euclea delphinii feeds “on leaves of apple, basswood, cherry, chestnut, maple, oak, redbud, sycamore, willow, and other broad-leaved woody plants” according to BugGuide.
Can you identify this photo for me?
I live in Columbia, South Carolina and found this caterpillar on an azalea bush this morning. My sister says it devours all the leaves on azaleas. When I went back to find it later, it was nowhere to be seen. What is it, please? Thanks.
Lane Bowden
Hi Lane,
This is a Prominent Moth Caterpillar in the genus Datana. The posture is quite distinctive. According to BugGuide, the species is Datana major, the Azalea Caterpillar.
Stinging Rose I believe
Hello!
My name is David Donaldson, I am a nature photographer and recently I was backpacking through the woods of the near Flagstaff, AZ when I came across this little thing on the ground. Could you possibly let me know if my assumption on it being a version of the stinging rose. Thanks for your time!
Dave Donaldson
Hi Dave,
We have gotten four requests for identifications of similar caterpillars from Arizona in the past week. They were all members of the genus Automeris, but there are at least four species found in Arizona. Your caterpillar is the only one we can identify for certain. This is a Cecrops Eyed Silkmoth Caterpillar, Automeris cecrops. It matches an image on the Butterflies and Moths of North America website.
Help!
I failed to mention earlier that we’re in Greensboro, NC and the little guys are over 2 inches long. This caterpillar, yes, that is a caterpillar, is eating my fringe tree which is very small and can’t take much more! there are five of these and I don’t want to kill them if they are going to turn into some lovely butterfly or moth…. it’s head is to the right, with the three hairy brown balls hanging off of it….lower left is its back end.
Melissa
Hi Melissa,
Probably 15 letters will go unanswered because we spent so much time trying to identify your bizarre caterpillar. We were relatively sure it was an Owlet Moth in the family Noctuidae, one of the largest moth families. We scoured BugGuide until we located Harris’s Three Spot, Harrisimemna trisignata. The hairy balls are actually “old dry head capsules shed by the earlier instars!” The adults are a very lovely moth, also pictured on BugGuide.
Help!
I failed to mention earlier that we’re in Greensboro, NC and the little guys are over 2 inches long. This caterpillar, yes, that is a caterpillar, is eating my fringe tree which is very small and can’t take much more! there are five of these and I don’t want to kill them if they are going to turn into some lovely butterfly or moth…. it’s head is to the right, with the three hairy brown balls hanging off of it….lower left is its back end.
Melissa
Hi Melissa,
Probably 15 letters will go unanswered because we spent so much time trying to identify your bizarre caterpillar. We were relatively sure it was an Owlet Moth in the family Noctuidae, one of the largest moth families. We scoured BugGuide until we located Harris’s Three Spot, Harrisimemna trisignata. The hairy balls are actually “old dry head capsules shed by the earlier instars!” The adults are a very lovely moth, also pictured on BugGuide.
Interesting photo (and location) of a bag worm
Hi Bugman,
Thanks to your site, my brother & I are able to identify the insect in the attached photo! We found this bag worm outside of a Walgreens, attached to the "Handi-capped" parking sign. I am amazed that it made it all the way up to the top of the sign without being destroyed by someone! Plus, not sure how it got it in the middle of a parking lot? Best,
Stacey Gee
Poughkeepsie, NY
Hi Stacey,
While the adult male moths of bagworms have wings, the females are legless and wingless and remain in the bag their entire life, laying eggs there after attracting a mate with pheromones. If a female bagworm caterpillar chose that site for its cocoon location, it will surely guarantee her progeny will not survive as they will be too far from a food plant. If a male moth emerges, he will be able to fly away. This whole scenario gives one pause to think.
¶
Posted 03 September 2007
§
Bagworm
‡
°
rss
