Subject: caterpillar
Location: Gamba, Gabon
October 1, 2014 5:58 am
Found crawling among leaf debris in back garden. About 3.5 inches long, though can stretch longer.
Signature: dkortephoto
Dear dkortephoto,
Your images are beautiful, as is this Caterpillar. The only information we can provide at this time is a family, and your caterpillar belongs to the family Saturniidae, the Giant Silkmoths. We have contacted Bill Oehlke for assistance as he has especial interest in the Saturniidae. We hope you will permit him to post your images to his comprehensive website if he assists in the identification.
Update: October 3, 2014
We heard back from Bill Oehlke who identified this marvelous caterpillar as Bunaea alcinoe, a species represented in our archives. The more typical coloration we see is black with yellow and red spikes. Your red individual is not as common a color variation. This species is known as the Cabbage Emperor Moth Caterpillar.
Looks like or close to the one you guys identified here:
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2014/08/05/emperor-moth-caterpillar-sierra-leone/
Thanks Cesar. You are correct. We had a long day away from the office and we just updated the posting with Bill Oehlke’s confirmation of the species. I did link to the same posting you provided.
Have a great day.
Looks like or close to the one you guys identified here:
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2014/08/05/emperor-moth-caterpillar-sierra-leone/