I've raised several of the Snowberry Clearwings, and they are real easy IMHO. I put them in a large clear container with about 4-6" of sterile potting soil in the bottom. I cut honeysuckle stems and stand them upright in the soil. Honeysuckle stems keep very well, but I replace them with new stems daily. Depending on the number of larva you're raising (I usually put about 4-6 larva in one of those big plastic pretzel jars from Sam's), I cut about 4 stems about 6-8" long and stick the stems in the soil. The larva will climb and feed on the leaves. They will pupate in the soil. I don't disturb them when they go underground. I wait about a week to 10 days and then check them. At this point, yours may overwinter as pupa. But, it is safe to leave them outdoors in the soil to emerge in spring. Make sure the container is somewhere it won't get knocked over by wind or rain or ravaging animals. Yes, I've had a possum try to get in my container outdoors. I don't know if it would actually eat the pupa or not. I bring mine in for the winter once the temps get into the 40s at night. I remove the pupa from the soil and put them in a Glad container with shredded paper towels. I also keep another container of water in the veggie bin in the fridge along with the container of the moth pupa. Once a month during the winter, I brought the containers out and gave the pupa a "water bath" with the water in the container that was the same temperature as the container of pupa. I then placed them back in the container with the shredded paper towels and back in the fridge they went. This is Bill Oehlke's recommended method for overwintering sphinx pupa. I did this last year, and it worked great. I took the container with the pupae outside around the end of April (after our last frost date) and left them. They took well over a month to emerge, but they were fine. Good luck! They are such fun! They were much smaller than I thought they were going to be. They really are about the size of a bumble bee. Susan

Thanks Michael. I continued to search with your answer and... well, got a bit lost between all those bugs, Lepidopteran, Symphytan, Coleopteran (I'm not very good at this). Then I asked the question on a usenet forum and someone suggested Acantholyda hierogliohica. Began to search again and found this page (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Acantholyda_hierogliohica) where there seems to be a match (the picture on the left is exactly what I found on the shoots). Another page which seems to confirm : http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=4544076. Olivier.

I'm having the exact same problem! I have noticed them twice now! Each time I inspected the whole tree thoroughly, and found a small group of these "bugs" at the end of a branch eating away, starting with the leafs at the end of the branch, and working their way towards the tree trunk. When I grab the branch to inspect it, I notice the little caterpillar-looking things have 2 or 3 legs on each side of their body, and only on the from 1/4 of their bodies. They seem attached to the leaf with their short legs and then they lift up the back 3/4 of their bodies in the air. What are these things and how do I get rid of them? Each time I have cut the small branch about 3 inches back from where they were and have thrown them in the garbage both times. What is a more permanent solution and where are they coming from? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Jen from the northern, Washington State coast.

but it looks like its getting ready to fall off and bury itself so it can turn into a moth! i never hurt them i actually catch them , put them in a tank, and feed it rotted tomatos and some green and yellow leaves!