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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera) » Owlet Moths and kin (Noctuoidea) » Erebidae » Tiger and Lichen Moths (Arctiinae) » Tiger Moths (Arctiini) » Phaegopterina » Lophocampa » Spotted Tussock Moth - Hodges#8214 (Lophocampa maculata)
Photo#579754
white caterpillar(?) - Lophocampa maculata
Copyright © 2011 John Skierski

white caterpillar(?) - Lophocampa maculata
S. Captiol Forest, Grays Harbor County, Washington, USA
September 3, 2011
Creekside in mixed doug fir/maple/alder forest.
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Contributed by John Skierski on 22 September, 2011 - 7:05pm
Last updated 23 September, 2011 - 1:27pm

Moved
Moved from ID Request.
… john and jane balaban, 23 September, 2011 - 1:27pm login or register to post comments

I am a biochemist at Lewis &
I am a biochemist at Lewis & Clark Colelge in Portland, OR and am studying this species. This is a realtively rare variety of Lophocampa maculata. I have a paper on this phenomenon coming out in the next issue of J. Lep. Soc. I am very interested in collecting data on this phenomenon. I will contact John Skierski for more details. If by any chance the specimen was collected please consider sending to me or observing in captivity to see what happens. Thanks.
… ken strothkamp, 23 September, 2011 - 8:50am login or register to post comments

There apparently is a white version
of Lophocampa maculata, but we've lost the link :(

There is a researcher studying Lophocampa maculata. It might be good to contact him and see what he has to say

"I am conducting a research project on this species and would like to get some additional informnation about this specimen. Please contact me at kgs@lclark.edu … ken strothkamp,"

We would be curious to hear what he has to say.
… john and jane balaban, 22 September, 2011 - 7:41pm login or register to post comments

 
Thanks, guys! I will contact
Thanks, guys! I will contact him.
… John Skierski, 22 September, 2011 - 7:45pm login or register to post comments

 
How interesting!
Both our finds were photographed on the exact same day (Sept 3), but 375 miles apart!
… LucasK, 25 September, 2011 - 1:16pm login or register to post comments

 
Here's the link
to the one I found this summer. Not sure if this is the "lost link" referred to above, or not...
http://bugguide.net/node/view/571898

You found another one! I waded through the blackberries for a month, looking for another. Apparently not even a sibling of a white L. maculata is any more likely to be white than any other L. maculata. (So I gave up).

Yours is much "whiter" than mine. The other white var. (soaked SEA-TAC version) is really white, like yours. I wonder if climate (or diet) affects coloration, during occurrences of this variation.

Good find!!

link to soaked sea-tac var.:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/139841/bgimage
… LucasK, 25 September, 2011 - 1:04pm login or register to post comments

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