Subject: blue horned caterpillar
Location: Glenwood Springs Colorado
August 18, 2015 10:25 am
found this in the parking lot in glenwood springs colorado when my dog sniffed it and reared back then i noticed that it had a horn and was wondering if it was poisonous
Signature: Jeremy
Dear Jeremy,
We have determined that your caterpillar is a Great Ash Sphinx Caterpillar, Sphinx chersis, based on the images and description on BugGuide which states: “Larva – greenish or pinkish with seven long diagonal lines sometimes edged with pink. Spiracles elongate, black ringed with white. Horn blue or pink.” While doing our research, we encountered this blog posting and we have written in with an identification.
Firstly, cool! Thanks for the research on that caterpillar I posted about in 2011.
Second, you linked to my site but you have a typo in your URL – which actually links to a picture of my daughter many years ago on a horse…sometimes we called her a bug back then, and she does have a blue thing on her head, but I don’t think that’s what you were going for.
Instead, ensure that the URL includes “p=1235” at the end (instead of “p=12”) and you’ll get the “hornworm” post I made. 🙂
Thanks again for an awesome service!
Well, we don’t know how that happened. Perhaps a line break. It is corrected.
My cat was playing with the caterpillar ,batting it around, and it looked like it was going to fight back….creepy. We removed the “bug” from her reach…didn’t know if that horn/stinger on the back was dangerous…kitty is 17.We live in the Mt.Shasta area , Northern California.
The horn on a hornworm cannot sting and it poses no danger.