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| Caterpillar at rest showing red/orange bands and spikes |
I found this huge black caterpillar climbing up the rock wall at our house in the mountains. The caterpillar has spikes and red or orange bands around the segments or ribs when at rest. The red or orange colored bands between its segments become visible when the caterpillar rolls into a ball for defense. The caterpillar can be described as hairy, bristled, fuzzy, spiky, furry or woolly.
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| Caterpillar climbing rock wall |
So what is it? This is a Giant Leopard Moth
caterpillar and is sometimes called an Eyed Tiger Moth. Some call it a black wooly bear but the scientific name is Hypercompe scribonia.
This black fuzzy caterpillar will turn
into a white moth with black circles or spots. Its abdomen will have blue and orange
that will not be seen when the caterpillar is at rest.
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| The black fuzzy caterpillar tuns into this white moth |
1 comment:
Just found one of these outside my house chilling out with a bunch of slugs on some groundcover. Thanks for your post...it helped me identify it. Cheers!
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