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Project Noah Nature School
Lophocampa sp.
A bright yellow larva with a dense coat of short spines on tubercles. It has red legs and a red head capsule (pictures 3 and 4). The tail end looks more like the head with false eyes and a simulation of red antennae. About 1.5 cm long. This was on the upper side of a leaf, close to the ground. Probably with urticating bristles. It is supposed to have long white bristles on both ends, but seems to have lost most of them (see this picture of L. modesta by bayucca from Costa Rica: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dominikhof...).
Salto de Eyipantla Waterfall, 13 km from Lake Catemaco, Veracruz, Mexico. (Eyipantla means "3 furrows" in the Nahuatl language).
Lophocampa modesta is listed as occurring in Veracruz Mexico (along with 10 other species of Lophocampa): http://bios.conabio.gob.mx/especies/1000... http://www.uv.mx/personal/fhernandez/fil.... For a picture of the adult see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lophocampa....
Personally I would go with Lophocampa sp., there are too many similar ones around.
Thank you bayucca, this one is so much like your picture from Costa Rica (minus the white bristles which appear to have been lost, since remnants are still visible). L. modesta is listed for Veracruz, Mexico (I found 2 references for you), so I decided to leave the species as modesta. That seem OK to you?
Erebidae, Arctiinae, Arctiini, Lophocampa sp., cannot really tell you which ones are found in Mexico. The caterpillars and moth are all very similar.
Spotted on Apr 22, 2015
Submitted on Feb 14, 2016
+1
