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Photo#29311
Caterpillar

Caterpillar
Bolton, Worcester County, Massachusetts, USA
August 22, 2005
Size: 15mm
I couldn't find an ID for this one. Any help appreciated.

Moved

Reminds us of
Tarachidia candefacta, Wagner pg 384, but different enough to make us unsure. We like the constrictions between segments, the humped A8, and the lined pattern, but ...
If you like the ID, see what you think of Lynette's . Can't find any other images online. Something similar but unidentified at

 
subfamily Acontiinae
I don't think Lynette's and mine are Tarachidia candefacta, because one of the key features is missing. "White spiracular stripe confluent with white line that runs down each proleg." I can't see enough on the third one to really tell.
The abdominal shape and the configuration of the prolegs is right on. As far as I can determine from this site, there's 92 species in this subfamily, and Wagner illustrates just 2 of them.
Do you think for now Lynette's and mine should be placed under Acontiinae?

 
We've been struggling with
what exactly to do with the caterpillars. It would seem to be helpful to pull together those with one set of abdominal prolegs separate from those with two sets, separate from those with four, separate from those that seem to be Arctiidae, etc. But sometimes it seems that when things are moved to the guide somewhere between the order and the genus, they just seem to get stalled and never further identified. No one looks for ID Requests in a subfamily guide page. We were thinking about some no taxon pages where we could keep all the unidentified caterpillars together, yet separated into categories, but haven't decided whether that would really be helpful. That doesn't really answer your question. Maybe the best thing is to put a comment in each saying that we think they are Acontiinae, and at least the images will appear on a search. We just don't know.

 
That sounds like
a good idea, to leave the comments about what we think they might be, while leaving the pictures under the order. Maybe someday we'll get lucky, and have Wagner or someone find the time in their busy schedule to look at these unidentified caterpillars. Or maybe some of us can raise a few cats to see what they turn into.

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