Regal Moth - Citheronia regalis

feeding

You wont have to worry about feeding this guy/girl. It's looking for a place to pupate. What it needs is a bucket of soil or paper toweling and a dark spot. BUT, this individual looks like it has parasitic eggs on it (the off white things that can be clearly seen in the 2nd picture near the spine). I'd recommend checking the caterpillar over completely for any of those and scraping them off carefully with a pin or razor, just be careful.

… Ryan, 14 September, 2009 - 3:11pm

Here's a close up of

the eggs:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/332893

… GValHart, 14 September, 2009 - 4:36pm

Thanks...

...I tried to get the parasites off with some (believe it or not) small surgical tools I have for doing very fine, small work. I used a pin and a tweezer and could not get them off. It seemed as the caterpillar was being hurt by my attempts, so I stopped. I wasn't able to remove any of them successfully.
:(
When the caterpillar pupates, will these things shed off? Or do they remain intact and they'll even affect the pupa when they hatch?

… GValHart, 14 September, 2009 - 4:36pm

hmm

Well if it pupates soon than they would be shed off I suppose, but I think that parasite eggs hatch very quickly and from my experience, hickory horned devils take quite some time to complete their final molt.

… Ryan, 14 September, 2009 - 6:28pm

Might survive anyway.

An insect that large could probably sacrifice some fat bodies to parasites without dying itself. I wouldn't give up hope. Thanks, Ryan, for saying what I was going to about pupation. Also, I have heard of people accidentally drowning these because they put them on foliage in a vase, and the caterpillars crawl off of trees in the morning after feeding at night....

… Eric R. Eaton, 15 September, 2009 - 12:28pm

So there's hope!

Thanks, all of you, for the info.
Last night, the kids and I let it go on our garden (the only place I could find with some bare soil it could burrow into easily) and wished it well.
With any luck, next spring it'll be looking for its mate and keeping the local population going!

… GValHart, 15 September, 2009 - 2:42pm

They're not called Hickory Horned Devils

for nothing! Click on the tab above that says Info and you will find lots of deciduous trees on which they feed.

… john and jane balaban, 14 September, 2009 - 1:35pm

Great info!

A real "D'OH" moment for me there...I knew about how to find that info and just wasn't thinking. Thanks for pointing the way again!!
Some excellent information collected in there!

… GValHart, 15 September, 2009 - 2:43pm

Moved

Moved from Arthropods.

… GValHart, 14 September, 2009 - 1:22pm