Subject: Found this in my garden
Geographic location of the bug: Clinton Corners, New York
Date: 08/07/2018
Time: 11:46 AM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Can you tell me what kind of caterpillar this is ?
How you want your letter signed: Brenda
Dear Brenda,
This appears to be the same species, or a close relative of an unidentified Caterpillar we posted three days ago. We wrote: “Your caterpillar looks remarkably like both the Caterpillar of the American Dagger Moth and the Caterpillar of the Banded Tussock Moth, but the pattern of the black tufts of hair on your caterpillar are noticeably different. ” We are pretty certain this is not a Caterpillar in the subfamily Arctiinae, but we will contact Arctiid expert Julian Donahue to see if he recognizes them. What is the food plant?
Julian Donahue provides an identification.
Hi Daniel,
Good for you to suspect the identification–it is neither of the two candidates.
Both of these are larvae of the Spotted Apatelodes Moth (Apatelodes torrefacta; Apatelodidae).
More images of adults and larvae, and distribution, here: http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/species.php?hodges=7663
All the best,
Julian
It was on an Azalea plant.
Brenda