greg975
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 1:06 pm Post subject: Can you ID this caterpillar please? |
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Hello everyone.
It's my first post in this forum.
I hope you'll be able to tell me which butterfly this caterpillar transforms itself to:
( photo / image / picture from greg975's Garden )
( photo / image / picture from greg975's Garden )
( photo / image / picture from greg975's Garden )
Too bad I didn't take pictures of my two other species of caterpillars before they start making their cocoons. I heard that some species die if you disturb them while they're in their chrysalis. 
The pictures are pretty much all I got, I can't tell what food it eats because I found it crawling under some kind of net we're using in my islands to protect the environment. http://www.dune-miquelon-langlade.net/files/image/filet%20coco.jpg
Thank you very much in advance. 
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eileen
 Forum Moderator
Scotland
Posts: 18013
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 1:54 pm Post subject: |
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I can't actually ID your caterpiller for you but can tell you that it's some sort of 'feeder' caterpiller. These are generally highly destructive to crops. I hope someone else can identify it properly for you.
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greg975
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 2:00 pm Post subject: |
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| eileen wrote: | | I can't actually ID your caterpiller for you but can tell you that it's some sort of 'feeder' caterpiller. These are generally highly destructive to crops. I hope someone else can identify it properly for you. |
Thanks for your reply.
It's not an easy task I guess. I've been searching for hours to id my three species without any luck so far. 
Maybe if I were to tell where I live it would help; It's small islands near Newfoundland so I guess it must be a butterfly/moth one can find in Eastern Canada.
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toni
Administrator
Plants Moderator
Regular Plants Contributor
North Texas, Zone 8a
Posts: 11241
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 2:19 pm Post subject: |
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Have you noticed any butterflies in the area lately that might have laid eggs on your plants? Maybe working backwards from the types of butterflies you have in your area will ID the caterpillar easier?
I have been looking thru the photos on the Whatsthatbug.com website and have come up empty. But there are many more pages to go. Check it out, I have to leave in a bit so maybe you can find it sooner than I can.
Also, don't limit your search to Canadian caterpillars only. Canada and the U.S. are on the North American continent so look at sites with North American in their name too. And some butterflies do get blown away from their 'home area' so it could be one from the northeastern U.S.
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greg975
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 3:42 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the help.
So far the only butterflies I've seen flying around in the area are the black swallowtails (I'm searching for those caterpillars but I guess it's too soon as the butterflies flying means they probably laid eggs recently). I know there are monarchs too in the area but not this time of year. I don't know many species we have here yet because I'm new in the pastime of butterfly rearing.
I read online that there's a average ratio of 1 butterfly found in an area for 11 moth, I guess it's most likely the last one. For the moth species I don't really know, I just see some flying around near lights in the night, I've never checked any closer.
Whatsthatbug.com is a nice site but it didn't really helped me much so far I'm scared. It works better for butterflies than moths and http://www.discoverlife.org/ wasn't anymore useful so far even though it has a great function, it allows you to check or uncheck options which are criterias (color of the animal, shape etc.). The site will then give you a list of butterflies/moths/caterpillars based of the ones matching what you selected previously. This site works also for fungi, many kinds of insects flowers and vertebrates. 
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greg975
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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Today I was checking my caterpillars and I discovered that one got out of its shelter I don't know why. Anyway it gives me an opportunity to show you the other kind of caterpillar:
( photo / image / picture from greg975's Garden )
I don't know the name of the host plant. Maybe someone will be able to tell even though they're all rolled-up.
( photo / image / picture from greg975's Garden )
6 days since I put them in the box and still no chrysalis and yet the leaves appear to be untouched.
( photo / image / picture from greg975's Garden )
They're running quite fast for small caterpillars so it was hard to get a perfect picture of the size but I think this should be good enough. This is my biggest one, one of the other two is maybe half the size and the last one has a size very close to the one in the picture.
( photo / image / picture from greg975's Garden )
I uploaded this one to show you as well as I could how hairy the larva is. Those hairs are so tiny it was hard to make them appear on picture. I hope it's good enough.
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MadamButterfly
Russell, Bay of Islands, NZ
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 11:04 am Post subject: |
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Do you have the Burnished Brass moth over there? The caterpillar looks very much like the one you have found.
Diachrysia chrysitis, also known as soybean looper.
Jacqui, in New Zealand
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greg975
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 1:20 pm Post subject: |
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| MadamButterfly wrote: | Do you have the Burnished Brass moth over there? The caterpillar looks very much like the one you have found.
Diachrysia chrysitis, also known as soybean looper.
Jacqui, in New Zealand |
Thanks for your reply.
You've found a caterpillar very close to mine and I'm pretty sure this butterfly you're talking about is present in my region. I just have one problem; I looked for some info about this soybean looper and I've found this:
"Larvae are tapered toward the head and move with a characteristic inch-worm, looping fashion. Both soybean and cabbage loopers can be distinguished from other caterpillars commonly found in cotton because they have only three pair of prolegs on the abdomen (1 pair at the tip of the abdomen and two additional pair)."
This caterpillar doesn't have an "inch-worm' like way of walking and neither do they have only three pairs of prolegs.
Though the overall look of the caterpillar was very close to mine. Maybe a related species  .
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