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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera) » Owlet Moths and kin (Noctuoidea) » Prominent Moths (Notodontidae) » Heterocampinae » Coelodasys » Unicorn Caterpillar Moth - Hodges#8007 (Coelodasys unicornis)
Photo#456655
What caterpillar, please. - Coelodasys unicornis
Copyright © 2010 Cathy Wilson

What caterpillar, please. - Coelodasys unicornis
Wildwood Preserve Metropark, lucas County, Ohio, USA
September 19, 2010

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What caterpillar, please. - Coelodasys unicornis What caterpillar, please. - Coelodasys unicornis
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Contributed by Cathy Wilson on 19 September, 2010 - 2:32pm
Last updated 23 October, 2010 - 7:08am

Moved
Moved from Prominent Moths.
… john and jane balaban, 23 October, 2010 - 7:08am login or register to post comments

Moved
Moved from Butterflies and Moths.
… john and jane balaban, 22 October, 2010 - 10:25pm login or register to post comments

Moved
Moved from ID Request.
… v belov, 20 October, 2010 - 8:55am login or register to post comments

Dead one, for starters!
That cottony cocoon on the other side of the branch is from the wasp larvae that fed on this caterpillar's insides and then emerged from all the holes you see in its side. It has funny coloration because of the parasitism, but we would suggest Schizura unicornis.
… john and jane balaban, 19 September, 2010 - 2:40pm login or register to post comments

 
Ewwwww . . .
Let me get this straight. The caterpillar IS dead or WiLL die?

So the wasp larvae abandoned the 'corpse' and ran around to the other side of the twig and communally created that cocoon for their further metamorphosis?

Am I close?

Grim, but thank you, nonetheless ;0)
… Cathy Wilson, 19 September, 2010 - 2:49pm login or register to post comments

 
You've got it...
And the caterpillar is either dead or dying. We have other examples of braconid cocoon bundles, presumably made by the same species of wasp, that are formed beneath the Schizura caterpillar rather than on the opposite side of the twig:
… Charley Eiseman, 21 September, 2010 - 3:12pm login or register to post comments

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