Polyphemus moth Caterpillar
suzycentri
13 years ago
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KC Clark - Zone 2012-6a OH
13 years agosuzycentri
13 years agoRelated Discussions
What The Heck Is This Monster?
Comments (9)Congratulations! I'm sure they're polyphemus moth caterpillars, even though they're not eating oak leaves, their most commonly used host plant. I don't see a horn on them, also don't see a horizontal yellow line. If they had that line, they'd be luna moth cats. I found a polyphemus cocoon this spring on a magnolia leaf. The cocoon on the right is a luna moth cocoon, and the one on the left is the polyphemus cocoon - It emerged, and turned out to be a female. Unfortunately, the picture I got of her isn't very good - You can look up polyphemus moth to see what their wings look like, topside. Sherry...See MorePolyphemus caterpillar
Comments (6)Figured I'd piggyback on this thread. Had a big surprise today. I've been running my rearing bags through the wash to get ready for the season. Picked up one that still had the zipper zipped. I quickly found two polyphemus cocoons in it. From their weight, I'd say they are both alive. The big surprise is that they did not eclose already. The one time I didn't get a polyphemus cocoon outside for the winter, I ended up with a beautiful female fluttering around my house in December. I've read that polyphemus has broods year round in southern Florida so I would expect the same here when I keep the cocoons inside. Anyway, I'm surprised but glad that the moths stayed in their cocoons for the winter. KC...See MorePolyphemus Moths Cocoon, And Pupa.
Comments (3)I agree. This posting of individual messages about dissecting cocoons and looking at pupa is old news and is just clogging up the forum. Woollybear, just add new posts to a single threads by replying up your message, and we can find all your observations in one place. If you save your photos to Photobucket, Picassa, and Flickr you can post multiple photos in one message. This post was edited by kaboehm on Sat, Nov 29, 14 at 21:50...See MorePolyphemus Moth caterpillar? Are they common?
Comments (2)Scott, The polyphemus moth is said to be 'widespread' here, but I don't seem them very often and I think that maybe they're not as widespread as they once were. You're in such a beautiful, lush area of Oklahoma (most years) compared to mine that I'd bet you have a better chance of seeing them there than I do here. There's usually two hatches--one in mid-spring and one in July or August, so I assume that the ones you're seeing now are from the second hatch. Are they really large cats? They go through several instars, so if they're still fairly small, I suspect they'll be munching on your plants for some time to come. I hope the blueberries survive all the munching. We had huge numbers of butterflies and moths in April and May when we were having some rainfall, but numbers have dropped very low here during the last 4-6 weeks. I suspect the heat and drought are really hurting the butterfly and moth populations this year. Enjoy it while it lasts because I think the average Oklahoman rarely, if ever, sees one....and you're got two! Dawn...See Moreweed30 St. Louis
13 years agosuzycentri
13 years agosuzycentri
12 years agoChowlini
12 years agoKonrad..just outside of Edmonton Alberta
7 years agoKC Clark - Zone 2012-6a OH
7 years agoKonrad..just outside of Edmonton Alberta
7 years ago
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KC Clark - Zone 2012-6a OH