Might someone ID this colorful fellow? Thanks, DW About 1.5 inches ( photo / image / picture from DerWhalrus's Garden )
If you will insert the photo into the post it will be must easier for us with 'older eyes' to see Where are you located? Sometimes that will help properly ID caterpillars, etc.
Thanks toni - I finally figured out how to do it! Oh, I am in Mobile, Alabama and he was eating a pecan leaf. DW
Have you noticed any webs in the pecan trees? My first thought is Webworm but I don't find one that looks exactly like that one. The fall webworms that sometimes appear in spring and summer, go figure , do look like the yellow with black spots of half of your caterpillar but don't have that stripe on the back half.
toni - This one was on a 2 year old pecan tree sprout. He was eating the leaf, but, with no enthusiasm. The tree is about 2 feet tall and there is various vegetation around it that he may have fallen from. The antennae like things on his head seem to be made up of multiple spines. No webworm evidence. Of course, I don't have a mature tree that they like to devour. The webworms I have seen are all just a dark ugly thing. I have lived in this part of the world all my life and sort of pay attention to Old Mother Natures creatures, however, this one is totally un-like anything I have seen. On that note - we had house Geckos show up last year and that was a new one on me. Perhaps some critters are moving here. DW ( photo / image / picture from DerWhalrus's Garden )
We have two kinds of webworms in my part of Texas, the fall ones are yellow with black spots but the spring ones are like your ugly dark ones. A couple of years ago we had the fall ones show up from May thru Sept, they were everywhere even inside the house I love the geckos, they show up inside the house during especially long droughts....just don't like it when I find one squished on the floor...eeeeu
This little fellow is a Tussock Moth catepillar. A "wannabe" anyway. 8) Toni- I highly recommend the "Kaufman Field guide to insects of North America." It is just a fabulous book with most everything in it. 8)
Thank you bethie. After I read your post I did a search for "Tussock Moth caterpillar" and found his picture and information. The article said they liked Oak, but, often fell and might be found eating garden plants. I suspect that was the case of my little fellow. He is so very different from out other caterpillars that he looked alien. toni - the very first Gecko I saw here was inside. He was just a baby. We have tons of Anoles, so I thought he was a badly deformed one! Southeastern 5 Lined Skinks seem to think they belong inside my house. Hard to catch to put back outside. Every once in awhile a mummified one turns up during cleaning. DW
The mummified ones aren't as icky to find as the ones that are smooshed flat from being stepped on in the middle of the night We haven't had them in a couple of years now, in the house that is. They got really bad during the extreme drought we had then, now they can find more water outside so they tend to stay out there.
