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Project Noah is a tool to explore and document wildlife and a platform to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere.
Orgyia leucostigma
The larvae are brightly coloured, with tufts of hair-like setae. The head is bright red, the body has yellow or white stripes, with a black stripe along the middle of the back. There are bright red defensive glands on the hind end of the back. Four white toothbrush-like tufts stand out from the back, and there is a grey-brown hair pencil at the hind end. Touching the hairs will set off an allergic reaction in many humans .
very common especially in late summer in eastern North America, as far west as Texas, Colorado, and Alberta.The caterpillars may be found feeding on an extremely wide variety of trees, including apple birch, black locust, cherry, elm, fir, hackberry, hemlock, hickory, larch, oak, rose, spruce, chestnut, and willow .
Defoliating outbreaks are occasionally reported especially on Manitoba maple and elm in urban areas . Outbreaks are usually ended by viral disease.
Lat: 24.94, Long: -80.61
Spotted on Jul 4, 2012
Submitted on Jul 5, 2012
2 Comments
ForestDragon: thanks so much .. you got it ! it's the same.
Do you have any other photos with different angles? This is a Tussock Moth caterpillar. My best guess as to a species is the White-marked Tussock Moth - Orgyia leucostigma: http://bugguide.net/node/view/521
However, I can't confirm it because I can't see the other markings that would positively identify this caterpillar (see the description further down the page of the link I put here). Perhaps you can confirm the ID since you saw the caterpillar in person. Hope this helps.