Green caterpillar with red dots - Actias luna

Moved

Moved from Giant Silkworm and Royal Moths.

… john and jane balaban, 25 December, 2008 - 10:01am

Moved

… john and jane balaban, 5 November, 2006 - 8:11pm

Probably a Luna Moth Caterpillar...

After surfing the web a bit, I found several pictures of younger instar Luna Moth caterpillars (Actias luna) that had the red dots. This specimen obviously has been parasitized, shown by the darkening of the 3rd body segment.

… Michael Garcia, 31 August, 2006 - 9:54am

Interesting

this site shows a fifth instar Luna with this appearance, also parasitized. Something has to be going on to make these red dots so large - this is what a fifth instar Luna usually looks like:

I wonder if a parasitized polyphemus would also take on this appearance - that species also has red dots which are usually tiny, on a lime green body:

However, yours shows a yellow subspiracular stripe, so I think Luna is a better ID.

… Hannah Nendick-Mason, 31 August, 2006 - 10:08am

...

I'm afraid I can't help with the identification at this time, but I can offer some other info. It's my finding that when caterpillars are off their host plant and out walking around, they're going off to pupate. I've learned over the years that if you want photos of them as plump caterpillars, you'd better get them soon after finding them. I've contained some overnight in preparation for photos the next day and then all I'm left with is a cocoon or chrysalis!

… Aaron Goodwin, 31 August, 2006 - 9:05am