Beautiful Blue Bug
Sun, May 10, 2009 at 1:44 PM
These blue fellows showed up in late April, proceeded to make a love shack of my grapevines, and disappeared shortly after. A couple of weeks later my vines are covered with these cute, little yellow and black caterpillars. I’m assuming the two are related but I can’t seem to find them on any of the internet searches I’ve done.
Thanks for any info, Rebecca
Mesa, AZ
Hi Rebecca,
We are so happy to have your photos of the adult moth as well as caterpillars of the Western Grape Leaf Skeletonizer, Harrisina metallica , in the same letter. According to BugGuide it is: “Native to southwestern USA and northern Mexico. Occurs from California to Texas, north to Colorado and Utah ” and “Larvae are a severe pest in some California vineyards.” A very similar species, the Grape Leaf Skeletonizer, Harrisina americana, is found in the eastern U.S.