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Project Noah Nature School
Phobetron cf. hipparchia
A hairy spiny caterpillar with fleshy appendages on both sides.
Found on the old rust covered leaves on an avocado tree. It's color seemed to be a perfect match for the leaf rust, making it very well camouflaged (see final image in the series). Based my ID on comments made in this spotting of a very similar caterpillar, http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/846... --Update-- The next day I found the caterpillar had molted and changed it's appearance quite a bit. For those interested it can be found here, http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/400...
Spotted on Jun 10, 2014
Submitted on Jun 11, 2014
4 Comments
Thanks for the comments.
Update: After talking to a local, he said these caterpillars aren't the ones that give you a nasty sting. But rather the ones to avoid are the ones like in this spotting, http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/642...
wow
Great spotting!!!
What great camouflage .. so clever!