Anybody got an idea what it is?
(https://forestryforum.com/images/03_21_04/tom-caterpillar01.jpg)
if you were a little farther north, id call it a milkweed tiger moth.
how long is it? over an inch?
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. :)
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
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
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 :o
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.
QuoteAnybody got an idea what it is?
I think its some kinda bug Tom. ;)
Would you call that a "software" bug or a "hardware" bug, Mark?
Tom the actual and original software bug was a moth. :P
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
That my friends is a White marked Tussock Moth. Here is an adult male.
(https://forestryforum.com/images/03_21_04/tussock-male.jpg)
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. :)
It may be harmless to humans...... but, it has me fooled. :D I don't want to touch it......might hurt me. :D
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
Picture of a luna moth I took, of the Saturniidae family. One of the giant silkworm moths. Their babies are like a big fat green cigar. :D ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/images/03_21_04/luna-moth.jpg)
Doesn't it look like it could jump out and grab ya on the cheek? ;D :D
I thought it was daddy Jeff before he combs his hair ;D :D