He is now about 3/4 of an inch to an inch long. In the picture, he is laying right next to a cilantro leaf, so that can give you an idea of how big he is. He is laying on the floor of his plastic container next to the skin he shed before he turned into what he is now. However, it's not stuck to the bottom of the container. When my 3 and 4 year old take the container to show him to friends, he rolls around the entire container moving his little tail (or what I think is a tail). IÂm guessing what he is in now is called a chrysalis, not a cocoon, right? Anyway, enjoy the pictures, and if you think you know what it is and what he will eat when his out, IÂd like to know. HeÂs been in there since Thursday. How much longer will he be in there? Should I release him?

I am so sorry this happened. You'll never forget about this chance meeting, will you? Some caterpillar stings are terribly painful and can cause severe reactions. Are you hypersensitive to other insect 'bodily fluids' such as those from ants, mosquitoes and the like? My own experience was with the Saddleback caterpillar. I thought that I had been shot when my arm brushed against the stinging hairs. The bad thing about the buckmoth caterpillar is that they are often found in numbers. So be watchful. Wear gloves. Keep some meat tenderizer with you when working outside. Make a paste of the granules to apply directly to the site right after you've been stung. It will help. Purchase some benadryl to keep on hand for such incidents, both oral and topical. I've seen people develop what looks like broken blood vessels where the spines entered the skin. Took several days for the whole thing to clear up and go away. Tell us how you are doing!

Can't say enough about the benefits of predatory "bugs", our true bugs. Nothing makes me happier than to see a cog wheel bug or an assassain bug perched quietly among my plants, waiting patiently for an unsuspecting catepillar to come strolling past. And the next time you start to swat a fly, you might want to see what kind it is...some of our most common flies also parasitise caterpillars. We are so caught up in our need for immediate gratification...we really want to see results NOW. It is tough to reassuringly tell yourself about balance and long-term fluctuations when you can see the damage being done to a prized planting on a daily basis. And there isn't always a handbook to tell you what the threshold is-the point at which you either take evasive action or suffer a complete loss. I am reminded of the cicada hatching we had here several years back. All you could do was clap your hands over your ears when you went out and stare in disbelief at the branches completely covered with those shiny black insects. How could the trees possibly survive that sucking screaming carpet? But then things quiet down eventually and the scavengers clean up the last of the carcasses and you see that aside from a few dead branches and weakened individual trees, they came out of it ok. Unless the invader is a foreign one and the ecosystem has no defenses for the newcomer, there is always a check and balance.

Hypercompe scribonia? "The caterpillar of the Giant Leopard Moth is black and covered in spiky hairs. This hairy type of caterpillar is called a 'woollybear'. It has red rings around it that are most visible when it coils up. It eats the leaves off shrubs, trees and other woody-stemmed plants."