Zebra Caterpillar (Ceramica picta)
Location: Ancaster, Ontario
November 16, 2010 11:13 am
A hitch hiker in a potted hardy Chyrsanthemum from a garden centre, and searching through your entire archive, not a caterpillar you have on your site!
Such a lovely looking creature, but apparently it’s a real pain in the fruits and vegetables and makes a rather dull brown moth.
I guess they all can’t grow up to be monarchs!
Cheers!
Signature: Cheryl-Anne
Hi again Cheryl-Anne,
You sure are keeping us supplied with nice and unusual photographs. We haven’t many images of Zebra Caterpillars on our site, and we did a bit of research on the species. BugGuide does not recognize the genus name Ceramica, and the moth is identified as Melanchra picta. Interestingly, BugGuide notes: “adults are uncommon but larvae may be a pest.“