Caterpillars need IDs

spotted yellow - green

I came up with the same genus as you without even looking at your link. Compare with Choreutis pariana.

… Lynette Elliott, 6 January, 2011 - 10:13pm

We were thinking that we would at least be able to separate

out the Tortricids, but then realized we were finding pyralids that looked exactly the same to us. Aaargh! frustrating. We were hoping Jason could identify the tortricids, but he says he is weak on the larva. Would be nice to find someone who actually knows them rather than us just guessing at them.

… john and jane balaban, 7 January, 2011 - 11:58am

Striped Caterpillar

Probably not the same as the ones above, but I thought I'd link it here before I lose the image....
Chionodes formosella

… Lynette Elliott, 6 January, 2011 - 5:44pm

Maroon and gold tier = Gelechiidae

I sent an email to Ron Royer, who asked Gerald Fauske. Gerald replied:

"My best guess is the Redbud leafroller moth: Fascista cercerisella (Clemens). It also feeds on maple. Early instar larvae are pale and cylindrical, later instar larvae take on the characteristic shape of these Gelechoid larvae and the color pattern. At the very least, I am sure this beast is a member of the (huge) family Gelechiidae and it matches the Redbud leafroller fairly closely, I would need an adult moth to be positive."

Compare our caterpillars with some of these.

… Lynette Elliott, 6 January, 2011 - 5:33pm

X Pattern

I've found some images of the Western Bean Caterpillar that have the X pattern. Some of the other images I've seen are more plain white looking grubby caterpillars. Check out Western Bean X pattern here and Western Bean grubby here. The one thing to look for is the two black rectangles behind the head.

… Lynette Elliott, 3 January, 2011 - 9:15pm

Large-yellow Underwing

I think we have the reverse problem with this image

I can see the large black spot on the top image, which makes it yellow-striped armyworm.

… Lynette Elliott, 2 January, 2011 - 7:14pm

We left a question

hope we can learn something. We seem to remember giving up just about here the last time we tried to separate these guys!

We also collected some glassy or such larva on the bottom of our list above. Wonder what they might be. Several have sizes listed as 5 to 7 cm!

… john and jane balaban, 2 January, 2011 - 7:39pm

Pale Western Cutworm

I have some conflicting info on pale-western. Here is another image of one. My Golden Guide has one image of a caterpillar under both Pale-western and Glassy, so I'm not sure if that means they look the same or what?

… Lynette Elliott, 2 January, 2011 - 9:29pm

Glassy Cutworm looks right for

reddish-brown head, dirty white to greenish color, glassy appearance and found in the soil.

OR is also a good state for Glassy & Black.

I guess Charley's monster of a caterpillar might be Glassy but I don't like the black behind the head, the funny ridge along the bottom and that it was found in a bird's nest in a marsh.

… Lynette Elliott, 2 January, 2011 - 9:21pm

green to tan spotted caterpillars

Some options we don't have images for are

European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) - The golden guide shows a little greener version than that tan one, but I have a feeling they are more whitish tan.

Agathodes designalis monstralis

… Lynette Elliott, 2 January, 2011 - 4:40pm

Check out the new article for

Spotted Cutworms & Clouded Locust Underwing for more confusion with the yellow-striped armyworm / large yellow underwing saga.

Check out Pale-Banded Dart as a possible large chevron candidate.

Check out a possible image for Wheat-head Armyworm.

… Lynette Elliott, 2 January, 2011 - 4:13pm

We looked through all the caterpillars on the ornithogalli pages

and moved a few out. The rest all look ok to us. Possible questions on 326491 and 33580. Otherwise, we're fairly sure the ones that are there are correct. Now we'll move up the taxonomy and see what we find. The hard part will be to decide which images are Noctua!
Nice work on the article. It should shape up to be something very useful. Watch out for Forestryimages and insectimages. The IDs are not always correct.

… john and jane balaban, 2 January, 2011 - 5:27pm

Yellow-striped

326491 - can't tell either, it's so dark and swollen! 33580 looks right I suppose, it's a tough angle to see the black spot. I don't think it's a yellow Underwing because the mark on the head is too distinct and the head isn't mottled.

… Lynette Elliott, 2 January, 2011 - 5:55pm

What do you think of these being Variegated

based on the info at this site

… john and jane balaban, 1 January, 2011 - 5:45pm

Looks like a match

I think they're ok to move.

… tom murray, 1 January, 2011 - 6:25pm

ok, moved

any thoughts on the other three species. The earlier Variegated posting by Lynette was clearly an error. We're even more comfortable putting all similar images into L. innominata now that we know what Variegated looks like

… john and jane balaban, 1 January, 2011 - 7:26pm

Sounds good

Now that you know what L. innominata and Variegated look like, it's a safer bet to move them.

… tom murray, 1 January, 2011 - 8:09pm

Confusing! Variegated cutworm is Peridroma saucia

not Lithophane innominata as stated in this reference. The problem there is they have a picture of Lithophane innominata and are calling it Peridroma saucia.

… Lynette Elliott, 2 January, 2011 - 12:16pm

Yes, we finally figured that out.

So we moved these images to Peridroma saucia, and the ones that look like the image on that web page to L. innominata. It doesn't help when the images on the reference website are wrong. No wonder we find this so confusing!

… john and jane balaban, 2 January, 2011 - 12:57pm

Fall Armyworms - Spodoptera frugiperda

We're missing images of these as well. See these. Especially watch for the Y on the head and black spots on the rear.

… Lynette Elliott, 31 December, 2010 - 5:56pm

frugiperda?

… john and jane balaban, 31 December, 2010 - 8:03pm

Nope. They are Beet Armyworms I'd guess

No spots on the rear. I think these might be Beet Armyworms. I'll bet you swapped pics/references/names while looking through these, I've done that before with some spiders.

… Lynette Elliott, 2 January, 2011 - 11:42am

So these are Armyworms - Mythimna

Wagner page 416. Moved 'em.

… john and jane balaban, 2 January, 2011 - 12:54pm

Armyworms & Cutworms

I'm going to work on these a little more using my Golden Guide and the internet references. Please see the new article I've started here.

… Lynette Elliott, 2 January, 2011 - 1:51pm

Beet Armyworms Spodoptera exigua

I'll bet we have some Beet Armyworms in there somewhere as well. It appears they can be quite variable.

… Lynette Elliott, 31 December, 2010 - 5:51pm

Some possibilities for beet

in addition to the one you commented on. What do you think? Any of these solid?

… john and jane balaban, 31 December, 2010 - 7:31pm

Fall Armyworms - Spodoptera frugiperda

I think some of these look pretty good for Fall Armyworms. The bright Y mark and the spots on the rear. Compare with this image. In fact I think they all might be Fall Armyworms except for the last one, which might be a Beet.

… Lynette Elliott, 2 January, 2011 - 11:50am

Ok, got it now.

Moved these to frugiperda. Found a nice pdf with Spodoptera of Honduras with clear explanations and pictures and added it to the genus info page. How about this one for Beet?

… john and jane balaban, 2 January, 2011 - 12:48pm

Tom's image above looks a lot like 9888.99 - Lithophane nr. inno

from that page at MPG as well.

Also I'll bet we have some bristly cutworms somewhere. See image here. Is that what these are?

… Lynette Elliott, 31 December, 2010 - 3:18pm

Nameless Pinion

And it looks just like one I reared out to maturity.

… tom murray, 31 December, 2010 - 4:37pm

It seems like we would be safe putting all these into innominata

rather than posting them as apple borers. That's what we would lean toward if folks agree.

… john and jane balaban, 31 December, 2010 - 4:41pm

We're having a hard time telling the L innominata

from your earlier post of Peridroma?? No matter what we check on them, they look the same. We'll keep trying. The Bristly has a long horizontal brown stripe that we don't see on the thumb you attached, but we bet we have some in the guide!

… john and jane balaban, 31 December, 2010 - 4:32pm

brown and blue larva

Here is something a little like the ones above.

… Lynette Elliott, 31 December, 2010 - 12:58pm

Big Chevrons

I've been looking through my guide books and I did find an image in Butterflies and Moths a Golden Guide, 2002 (pg. 121) that shows a Agnorisma badinodis larva with large chevrons. It's widespread and eats dock and chickweed in the spring.

Also check out this image of a cutworm for some of those other chevron looking cats.

… Lynette Elliott, 31 December, 2010 - 12:16pm

Thanks,

we didn't find any online images for Agnorisma yet, but will keep looking. The cutworm image certainly seems to be a match for

and maybe

.
Do you think we should go ahead and move them based on the reference you found?

… john and jane balaban, 31 December, 2010 - 1:09pm

Big Chevrons

Maybe we should give it a couple days. I'm still finding sources and not working very quickly. Take a look towards the bottom third of this page and see Spaelotis clandestina - W-marked Cutworms. This will be a good reference for our Yellow-striped Armyworm discussion as well.

… Lynette Elliott, 31 December, 2010 - 3:15pm

We realized the reference was wrong

and moved most of these images to L. innominata instead

… john and jane balaban, 2 January, 2011 - 12:58pm