Notodontid Larva

Description:

This Caterpillar was surprisingly hard to notice as an actual larva. From a distance it looked for all the world like a curled brown edge of the leaf (see the last picture). It holds its tail in the air most of the time, with the last pair of prolegs modified into two little horns on the end of the body. They do not seem to be useful as grabbing prolegs and may contain distasteful chemicals. The larva has an orange spotted head capsule and is also somewhat of a bird dropping mimic. I think this is a caterpillar of the Family Notodontidae, but haven't found the species yet.

Habitat:

It looks like it is feeding on Elm leaves. Totem Bight State Park, Ketchikan, Alaska.