Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar

TaxonomyBrowseInfoImagesLinksBooksData
Photo#102047
Dead oak caterpillars

Dead oak caterpillars
Nashua, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, USA
April 6, 2007
Size: maybe 45 - 50 mm
I uncovered several of these large, shiny, unadorned, brown-green caterpillars under the bark and tunneled into the softer rotting wood of an oak that had snapped but was still semi-attached about three feet off the ground. They are pale underneath but would not stay put long enough to capture an underside view. Besides genus/species I would like to know what their normal diet is.

Images of this individual: tag all
Dead oak caterpillars Dead oak caterpillars Dead oak caterpillars Dead oak caterpillars Dead oak caterpillars Dead oak caterpillars

Cossidae?
Given the large size, I wonder if these might not be larvae of one of the carpenterworm moths? If so, dead wood IS their normal diet:-)

 
Hmmm,
their unadorned integument is much more like that of a wood-boring beet*le than a of something that crawls along stems and leaves. Hopefully one or two will mature for us.

Comment viewing options
Select your preferred way to display the comments and click 'Save settings' to activate your changes.