Paddle Caterpillar
Hi! I just love this site! My husband and I finally ID’d this beautiful caterpillar from your site. I have a question though. Is this caterpillar only supposed to be specific to the Northwest? We live in central Missouri in the country and found this guy on a small type of deciduous tree. They are very rare, from what I read, but how is it that he would be here in Missouri? Thanks!
Diana
Hi Diana,
We are positively thrilled to get your image of the Paddle Caterpillar, Acronicta funeralis, also known as the Funerary Dagger Moth. BugGuide lists reports from Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Washington. This indicates that it ranges far wider than just the Pacific Northwest. Thanks again for sending in such a great image, especially since there is such a dearth of images of the Paddle Caterpillar on the web.
I just saw one of these caterpillars on a pin oak in Brazil, IN!!!
I just found one in Kent Ohio found what is was on this website
One found in northeast Ohio!
Found one a couple of days ago in southwest Michigan.
Just found one in Medford, OR!
One found in southwest Missouri this week. I took photos too.
I know this is a really old article, but we just saw one of these in Northeast Kansas. I had a difficult time finding out what it was online, most images showed an Alder moth caterpillar, which looks similar, but not what we had. I snapped a picture because it was pretty and I’ve never seen one like it before.