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Butterfly Garden

Caterpillar identification, help please!

16 years ago

A caterpillar has just hatched from a round yellow/orange egg. It has two white spikey/fluffy spines on its head, a white middle, four short white spikes on its bum and the rest black. what could it be?

Please help.

I think it was on an orange tree

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Comment (1)

MissSherry
16 years ago
The round, yellow/orange egg on an orange tree sounds like a giant swallowtail, but the description you give of the caterpillar doesn't, so I assume it's some type of moth. Just in case, here's a picture of a giant swallowtail hatchling -
{{gwi:463825}}
Sherry
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What's your location? Makes a big difference, in some instances. Oops, I see that you are in the UK. You good people have more of the tent making caterpillars than we do! I'm in agreement with Larry that it resembles some of the tent caterpillars that we have in the states. This post was edited by rhizo_1 on Fri, Aug 29, 14 at 15:19
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It's often helpful to know a general location so that insects can be indentified more easily. This caterpillar looks like an armyworm/cutworm to me; there are many, many species that belong within that group of larvae. It was probably looking for a place (in the ground) to pupate.
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Can you post a larger image? That said, if it's a ceterpillar, it may be getting ready to pupate.
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Thanks for the response. I actually went to google first and came up empty handed. I even came across the key you linked to and was unsuccessful. Perhaps I should give it another try.
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?what to do with this little guy?

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