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A question
If I sold caterpillar faces, would people buy them, and how much should I charge for them?
They make for *very interesting* arts and crafts supplies, and the caterpillars drop them after each molt (molting caterpillar pictured, you can see his new face squeezing out of the new one better below).
I have a decent sized collection of various kinds of caterpillars, and they all look different.
Whatcha guys think?
June 19, 2019
jjongs-tae-and-biscuits submitted:
Heyo! I know you’re not in Australia, but there was a whole group of caterpillars (I guess?) by the edge of a path on a nature walk today. They moved as a group, and had little pointed butts that they tapped on the ground when my partner and I got close to them. I tried identifying them, but with no luck, so I wanted to see if you knew them? Thanks in advance, regardless!
LOOK AT THESE CUTE LITTLE BABIES!!! You are right to be a little suspicious of these guys. There aren’t any clear shots of their little suction cup prolegs because they are all in a huge pile together (when they’re in groups like this, they’re called “gregarious”). If you did pick one out and take a good look at it, you would likely be a little more suspicious.
Here is what you would see for a typical caterpillar:
This is a Gulf Fritillary caterpillar, just after molting. I numbered the prolegs. There is a little variation, like with inchworms (who only have two!), but for the mostpart, the most you will see is 5 (the exceptions are the slugmoth caterpillars, but you will never confuse them with these next guys).
Here’s what you would see if you pulled out one of your little friends there:
Here’s a freshly molted baby! Hmmmmmm.
Here’s another baby! Wait a minute...
Your friends are not baby moths or butterflies, they are the babies of:
A sawfly! Related to Bees, Wasps, and Ants!
Of course, I only have photos of the Texan ones, and I honestly haven’t seen too many species (these are not easy to find here!). But oh boy, the Australian sawflies are beautiful!
Your sawfly larvae are in the genus Perga. Here is what the adults look like (2 cm long and beautiful):
Image from iNaturalist, copyright Felix Fleck [link]
How did I figure this out? I googled “Australian caterpillars,” and landed on this page: The Identification of Caterpillars of Australia [link]. Large caterpillars are noteworthy, especially gregarious ones. But they’re not on the main page. The long legs (actually legs, up front) made me suspicious as well, so I clicked over to their sawfly page [link], and there they were! I looked them up on iNaturalist, and we were in business.
Thanks for asking, that was fun! I didn’t realize sawflies got so big (but of course they do!)
March 14, 2019
THIS IS HAPPENING IN MY YARD RIGHT NOW THIS IS THE BEST THING THAT’S EVER HAPPENED TO ME I LOVE THIS CICADA I LOVE I LOVE I LOVE JULY 2, 2018
Baby molted and he’s a dark morph 😍 He dropped his tail in this last molt. Should be eating the vines bare and pupating by next weekend! Vine Sphinx moth July 13, 2018
Yesterday I mowed the front yard (ugh) and I hurt a baby!!! I was so sad and I felt so bad, especially since the baby was about to molt (you can see the new head under her skin behind the tiny head in the second photo). I brought her inside where she is safe, and laid her under a sunflower leaf to keep her cool and protected. I checked on her and it didn’t seem like she was going to make it (she was... bleeding? leaking?). This morning I checked on her. She was NOT under her sunflower leaf—only her old clothes were there. Instead, she had climbed up the stem of the plant I’m feeding a Tawny Emperor, and she had TURNED BLACK! A lot of caterpillars will undergo some dramatic color changes as they mature, but in the species I’ve raised, the change is usually pretty slow and subtle. Not with these guys!! I gave the baby some new plants. Not sure what species this is (she is a sphinx or hawkmoth for sure), but hopefully a variety of sunflowers growing under my bird feeders are enough to satisfy her. These caterpillars tend not to be *too* picky. She looks like she has a couple marks, but otherwise has recovered from her injuries. I hope she makes it 😭 May 6, 2018
A buncha naked babies this morning. Gulf Fritillaries are the gift that keep on giving. I found an egg that was hatching out in the yard, and I caught him crawling out and starting to eat his eggshell. Then I found a caterpillar who had just molted (the spines turn black when they harden). AND a chrysalis I had moved over to the carrier I take to work (so I can release them when they’re ready to go) had a soft butterfly hanging off it before I left. So I left her outside to harden her wings, so she can ultimately cover the passion vine with even MORE eggs.
Gulf Fritillary Update! See the original post for these guys here [link]. The oldest caterpillar is now a third instar (meaning it has molted twice) and has some very fancy spines! They keep getting things stuck in their spines, like pieces of leaf, poop, their siblings molted head capsule... They are very happily eating their passion vine leaves, and they are actually growing very fast considering how much they’re eating (which isn’t actually that much!)
Of the four eggs I found, two hatched (I also found four caterpillars later). The other two... are getting interesting. They both looked like they were about to hatch (I could see the caterpillars inside!) but now... One of them is mostly empty with a dried up mass, and the other looks like it’s cookies n’ cream flavored. I put both in enclosed containers in case they have parasites inside. I want to see who they are!
Photos from July 2 / Posted July 4, 2018
Queen pupation #1! Keep it muted, my air filter is loud and annoying (sorry!) this video provides the sideview of a Queen butterfly caterpillar pupating.
Please see main Queen Livepost Thread here: https://nanonaturalist.tumblr.com/post/176991091576/nanonaturalist-nanonaturalist (note: tumblr may block the link, you can copy and paste the url if it does. I’ll fix it when I can get on an actual computer).
Also, please eagerly anticipate Queen Pupation #2 video, which shows THE FACE-VIEW of a Queen caterpillar pupating (YES THERE IS A FACE!!!). I will update this post with the link to that video when I can get it up.
UPDATE: I was able to get the WHOLE VIDEO UP! https://nanonaturalist.tumblr.com/post/176995827331/the-whole-queen-caterpillar-molting-video-i
August 14, 2018
