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These caterpillars come down from a pine tree in a column in the morning to feed and go back up again in a column at night. They must derive some kind of protective benefit of going about their lives in a crowd. Army worm moth caterpillars?
Pine trees in the garden. Semi-urban area on the outskirts of San Cristobal.
I think these are the ones that make an irregular nest-like structure in which they pupate in mass. They all emerge as adults at the same time and the empty nest thing eventually falls down to the ground. I will add a picture of it, but I am not positive it is the same species. The consistency of the nest is like that of a paper wasp and grey in color. I have dissected one open and it was full of pupal cases of moths.