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Photo#182440
Caterpillar wearing a rusty colored, armored blanket - Dimorphopteryx

Caterpillar wearing a rusty colored, armored blanket - Dimorphopteryx
Baton Rouge - BREC Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, USA
May 13, 2008
Size: about 0.75 inch
A group of 8 to 10 of these guys were feeding on the leaves of a red buckeye tree/shrub.

The blanket gave the caterpillar a very flat look.
Resembled a slug.

Edges of the blanket were lined with spikes.
Three small "horns" in front.

John

Tenthredinidae, Allantinae
Definitely a Dimorphopteryx larvae. I'm unable to identify these to species, however. Most interesting is the host plant. No members of this genus have been recorded from Aesculus; in fact, I don't know of any sawfly that has been recorded from the plant.

Moved
Moved from Unidentified Sawfly Larvae. The 30-year-old Catalog of Hymenoptera doesn't list any sawfly larvae that feed on Aesculus, so this may be a new host record.

Moved

Looks to be the larva of a sawfly.
The identification of the plant they were feeding on should be a great help in identifying the species of sawfly. Nice work!

 
Posted better pictures
Since it was not the same individual, I did not paste it into this page.


I looked a lot of images and did not find an exact fit, although it was fun looking.
Thanks again for the help.

Should I delete this earlier version since I made a separate post?

John

 
No, we would save it.
It is a good shot of the head and eye.

 
Thanks
I don't know anything about sawflies.
Did even know they made caterpillars.
Now I have some reading to do.
Thanks for pointing out the direction.

John

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