Here's a caterpillar from my front porch

Tom · May 03, 2004, 04:11:25 PM

Anybody got an idea what it is?

redpowerd · May 03, 2004, 05:52:21 PM

if you were a little farther north, id call it a milkweed tiger moth.
how long is it? over an inch?

Tom · May 03, 2004, 08:16:46 PM

close to 2 maybe more inches long but rather skinny. Real brilliant colors. Fire engine red head and brilliant orange markings on the body. Black and silver hairs.

DanG · May 03, 2004, 09:08:32 PM

I dunno what it is, Tom, but DON'T touch it. If it's the one I'm thinking, those "hairs" are actually venomous stingers, and are quite painful. There are others, however, that look similar, and are harmless. I can't be sure which you have there, so go ahead and touch it. Let us know how it worked out for you. ;D

Tom · May 03, 2004, 09:15:38 PM

No siree bobcat!! I'm not touching that thing. Even if it didn't have hairs, the colors are ominous. Something with a head that red has got to be mean. I knew an Irish Lass that looked kinda like that and she'd tear your head off if you lookee at her crooked. :D

Ianab · May 03, 2004, 10:00:32 PM

yeah.. I sure wouldn't go touching the thing.
Look a bit like the Painted Apple Moths we are having trouble with in NZ >:(
Not exactly the same, but it must be related.
You can imagine the fuss aerial spraying a whole city with insecticide is causing!

Picture
http://www.invasive.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=9000010

Info
http://www.maf.govt.nz/biosecurity/pests-diseases/forests/painted-apple-moth/index.htm

hope they aren't gonna take over

CHARLIE · May 19, 2004, 08:54:28 PM

Tom, I'm pretty sure those things sting really bad. There is also a catipillar that has white hair that has very painful stings. I know because one dropped out of the water oak onto my neck back in 1956. Hard to forget.

Mark M · May 21, 2004, 08:24:19 AM

QuoteAnybody got an idea what it is?

I think its some kinda bug Tom. ;)

Tom · May 21, 2004, 03:42:27 PM

Would you call that a "software" bug or a "hardware" bug, Mark?

CHARLIE · May 23, 2004, 11:25:54 PM

Tom the actual and original software bug was a moth. :P

Tom · May 24, 2004, 05:35:10 AM

Yep! It was found by that famous "computer explorer" Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. Back then, software and hardware were pretty much the same thing. Her moth was stuck in the relays of the Mark II at Harvard. :D

http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Hopper.Danis.html :P

SwampDonkey · May 24, 2004, 09:04:59 AM

That my friends is a White marked Tussock Moth. Here is an adult male.

They are similar to Gypsy moths in that the females don't fly much. A real dead ringer is those 4 tuffs of hair on its back (caterpillar). Harmless to humans.

Tom · May 24, 2004, 04:23:12 PM

It may be harmless to humans...... but, it has me fooled. :D I don't want to touch it......might hurt me. :D

SwampDonkey · May 24, 2004, 05:59:01 PM

Some of them creatures sure do have alot of 'fake' defense. Look at some of the silkworm moths with those large eye spots on their wings. :D :D ;D
http://www.canadianbiodiversity.mcgill.ca/english/species/insects/insectpages/Saturniidae.htm

Moths in the USA and their ID
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/moths/mothsusa.htm

Did ya know there was a hummingbird moth?, they are the sphinx moths. Yup, its so big it ate a hummingbird and aquired its colors. ;D

http://www.birds-n-garden.com/hummingbird_moths.html