Subject: What the heck is this thing?
Location: Rio Dulce, Guatemala
May 19, 2012 7:20 pm
This little thing was crawling across a pier in Guatemala. Being European, I have NO idea what this could be. Do you?
Signature: Kjetil
Dear Kjetil,
We immediately recognized this as one of the stinging caterpillars in the genus Automeris, but we needed to research the species on the World’s Largest Saturniidae Site where we believe we identified it as Automeris metzli. Cross checking that name brought us to our own archive. Caterpillars from this genus have stinging spines and an unfortunate encounter can cause a very bad reaction in some people. The adult moth pictured on Bug Paradise is quite beautiful. We are going to copy Bill Oehlke on our response. He can verify the identification and he might also request permission to post your photos to his website.
