On 8/17 I collected a sugar maple leaf with a large cluster of what I was (and am) pretty sure were noctuid eggs. On 8/20 (last night) they had hatched into these little fuzzy caterpillars that look, and move, like inchworms, but have an extra set of prolegs. A quick look at Wagner's book leads me to conclude these are some kind of looper (Noctuidae: Plusiinae), which apparently means I have only 50 species to choose from. I'll try to rear them, but after 24 hours they haven't shown any interest in maple leaves (sugar or red)...

Update: on 8/22 (morning) I gave them leaves of paper birch, raspberry, and cultivated bean. When I got home, I found they had been munching away at the bean leaf, but hadn't touched any of the other leaves. I guess they're probably one of those garden pest varieties of noctuids, but I'm hoping to find something not from the garden that they will eat. This evening I added leaves of Solomon's seal and red clover.