can you identify ?
About 3 inches found in my backyard. Reddish brown thick. Six horns in front and one at end.Thank you P.S I looked everywhere online and couldn’t find it. We live in North Carolina
We are guessing that this Hickory Horned Devil is brown instead of the usual blue-green color because it is ready for pupation.
Correction (09/02/2007) Misidentification
Hey there,
I was cruising your site and noticed that you had misidentified a prepupal caterpillar posted on 9/1/07. You identified it as C.regalis that was brown because it was ready to pupate. C. regalis turn an aqua color when prepupal, but there is another Citheronia species in the area, C. sepulcralis . This the prepupal larva of the Pine Devil Moth. Its coloration and markings, or lack thereof, are right and the species becomes increasingly more common towards the south-east where they can have 2 or more broods per year. I hope that this info helps anyone else that might come across a Pine Devil on one of their pine trees or in search of a suitable pupation site that might consider it a Hickory Horned Devil. Cheers,
Josh