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Caterpillar ID please

Heee! I found a caterpillar on our car that I have not seen before. I believe it may have crawled onto or dropped from a tree while we were in town this morning, because it was on the car as soon as we got home. It was between the space of the car tag and the bumper, and I only noticed it because I was taking groceries out of the back.

It's not strange, just odd from other caterpillars we normally find around the house.
Since I do not have a camera except for a camera phone, I drew a picture of it. EEEK!
It is not the best in the world, but here are the pictures.
One is colored, and one is just the lines.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y82/Desirai/cater_2.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y82/Desirai/cater_1.jpg

It is 1.7 inches long. One antenna is 7 mm, while the other is 1.1 cm. It doesn't look broken because it has the little 'bulb' on the end.

In each segment of its body, it has 6 tiny little spines about 1 mm long. It's black with horizontal orange lines. On the sides, the lines zigzag like in the pic, but the other lines are straight. It is very fat, and also seems to be sickly.

It doesn't crawl much, it just sits. It just sits on me, I pet it, poke it, and I inspected it when I found it, looking for ants or something. It doesn't seem to have any noticeable bite wounds or anything. I stuck it in a jar with leaves from the plants in our yard, hoping it'd eat something. Is it perhaps ready to make a chrysalis? or cocoon? I'm not sure the difference between a moth caterpillar and a butterfly caterpillar, eep. ^^; I'd be glad if I could release it on a plant outside.

Oh, and I named it Medusa because of the strange antenna lengths, hehehehe.

Hello!Impressive drawing!
Hello!

Impressive drawing! I'm not specifically an entomologist, but only a professional naturalist. But two possibilities came into my mind.

1. Orange-striped Oakworm (Anisota senatoria). About the right size, I'd say. . These caterpillars feed on oak. So if you've got them nearby, that would help clinch the ID, and give you something to feed them.

2. Less likely, but I'll suggest it anyway: Gulf Fritallary, Agraulis vanillae. The spikes on these fellows are longer and sorta branched. The larvae feed on passion vines, more commonly found in the southern US, like florida, but can wander northwards.

You didn't state where you are from, so I couldn't narrow it down any further by range. Hope this at least gets you going. We naturalists at the environmental center where I work also reference Whatsthatbug.com for mystery-bug assistance. You may want to cruise through there for a while. (A word of caution... be prepared to get side-tracked alot... lots of cool pics and fun write-ups and comments there!)

Good luck. Hope this helps.

 
Thank you!
It is an Orange striped oakworm! I've read that they bury themselves in dirt. In the jar I put it in, I put a few inches of dirt, and it promptly buried itself.
I'm going to assume it thinks it is time to overwinter, and leave it alone. I hope that it survives and becomes a moth, as I have seen the moths recently. I think they are gorgeous.

At first I did think it was a fritillary, as I have seen those butterflies. But the spines are way too big.

I forgot to say I am from Alabama.
Thanks a lot.

 
Woo Hoo!
Oh yeah! that's one for me! (I love it when I get these critters ID'd right!) ;D

(You know..I need to look up what these guys turn into..I haven't the faintest idea....!!! hah!)

KP

 
pretty!
The adults are lovely!

There's a nice picture here: http://www.carolinanature.com/moths/

It's in the grouping of the 18th photo down. (You'll see what I mean if you go to the site. :)

 
Ooh~
I LOVE those moths. They are soo gorgeous. I see those all the time (luna moths, oakworm moths, mapleworm, etc) and never knew where they came from. Thanks so much for that site!

ID Request
If you want this caterpillar identified, you should post the images and your description in ID Request, not here.

Also, your illustrations are cool, but a photo might help as well, if you can take one.

 
:(
I only posted it here because I don't have an actual picture, just a drawing. I have no way to get pictures on my computer.

 
That's okay
You could try posting your drawings in ID request. They are good enough, and your measurements are precise enough, that it is quite possible that someone will recognize the species.

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