Beautiful Wood Nymph Caterpillar
(edited 9/16/09 to fix the link to Toronto Gardens)
The mystery caterpillar is now identified – I think. Two frequent visitors sent me on a merry chase which ended happily at bugguide.net
Helen at Toronto Gardens and sharkbytes at My Quality Day definitely deserve a little link love for their help.
Helen was too close – I almost didn’t check any further. The Pearly Wood Nymph – Eudryas unio – is a spitting image to what I found after digging a bit deeper.
sharkbytes was a bit further off. The Eight Spotted Forester moth caterpillar – Alypia octomaculata – she suggested was a near miss.
Beautiful Wood-Nymph caterpillar – Eudryas grata
What made me decide it was neither of the suggested species?
I’ll start with the runner up. Helen’s pick of the Pearly Wood Nymph has two differences I could make out. The Pearly Wood Nymph has a blue/white thoracic shield and 2 dots on the prolegs. As you can see in the image this one has the orange thoracic shield and single dot on the prolegs. Those differences leads me to believe this is a Beautiful Wood-Nymph caterpillar.
sharkbytes suggestion gets a bronze medal for her efforts. Her pick forgot to shave though. There are no hairs on the caterpillar I photographed but it’s easy to see how she made the pick. After browsing through countless thumbnails it’s not hard to latch on to something that looks so close. I don’t ‘borrow’ images so use the link to check out her pick, Eight Spotted Forester – Alypia octomaculata at bugguide.net
A big thanks to all who went looking for an answer to yesterday’s conundrum. It really bugs me when I can’t ID something so distinctive.
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September 13th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Very interesting. The Peterson guide says the Forester is hairless and shows it so in the picture. Of course, new info is learned all the time.
September 13th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Where did you find a pic of the beautiful wood nymph caterpillar? I’m not getting one on a search.
September 13th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Awesome you got it identified. I’ll know it if I ever find one now.
September 13th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
He knew all along ! He’s just playing with us !
Nice ID, WA (and Helen too). I found it a little unusual also, when I picked Alypia octomaculata yesterday, that yours wasn’t (as) hairy and had spotted prolegs instead of black. But I figured he could be an oddball.
Now can you explain how 2 such similar caterpillars make such different looking moths ?
ps. As far as I can tell both Eudryas Unio and Grata have 2 spots on prolegs. Unio has spotted thoracic legs too, except Grata’s t-legs look dark(er), almost black. Am I seeing right ?
September 13th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Glad you were able to identify it. Sharkbytes is always good help.
September 14th, 2009 at 6:51 am
The best answer should be named after you, finally. This is your answer, am I right?
September 16th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Yay, I like this game. Do I win a caterpillar? Thanks for the link love. Or, depending on where you’re born and how you punctuate that: Thanks for the link, luv!
September 16th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Actually, I just tried my link in your post, and it doesn’t work. Must’ve turned into a butterfly and flown the coop…