I can't find the caterpillar in any of my books under Potato, Tomato, or Solanaceum/nightshade family, but then there are many generalist moths that will use most anything. If I have time, I'll thumb through my books, and maybe it'll be there. I assume you're in south Florida, southern California or south Texas, so it could be a tropical moth that my books wouldn't list. I Googled potato tree to find out about it, and the pictures of the flowers look like Carolina nightshade. I assume the flowers are much bigger than the Carolina nightshade, though? 'Looks like an interesting plant! Don't be surprised if you find tomato or tobacco hornworms on it! Sherry

Sandy, great minds think alike. I actually found wormspit while looking for something else. I emailed back and forth with the guy for a while. I was going to buy something from him. I like to buy from artisans. Unfortunatly, it was pretty expensive. $10 an inch for regular silkworm silk. He didn't think he had enough of cecropia silk to weave anything. We are trying to collect enough giant silkmoth silk at the house to do a program on it this summer. Maybe I will try weaving something myself. With my skill level it will probably look like one of those pot holders I made at camp when I was seven. -Elisabeth

If the pot is not in an enclosure of some sort, don't count on it not wandering. BST can travel pretty fast when looking for a place to pupate. They can move quite a distance from the host plants. Maryann

Oh I love a challenge! Right now I am wrestling with False Boneset. If you want a real head scratcher, look that up! Anyhow, my gut is telling me Fall Webworm (Hyphantria cuea). These guys are so variable. Also, depending on the angle the picture is taken at, it can look different. Look at some pictures on the web like Bugguide. Some look close to your guy/gal some completely different. One common characteristic is the very long hairs. Another possibility is the salt marsh moth(Estigmene acrea)but I think the hairs, while long, are not quite as long as on a fall webworm. Any other guesses? Miss Sherry will get it in one! -Elisabeth Here is a link that might be useful: Bugguide Fall Webworm