A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Hyphantria cunea
A very hairy, white caterpillar sitting on a plant that it took a few bites of. It will undergo metamorphosis into a large white moth with black-tipped legs.
On the outskirts of a forest.
Spotted on Sep 6, 2012
Submitted on Sep 7, 2012
16 Comments
Thank you, ForestDragon. The fall webworm and Estigmene acrea look so similar! I've updated the ID.
Hi Mauna, not to confuse things, but I believe you were correct originally. I am confident that this is Hyphantria cunea (Fall Webworm), without a doubt! Later instar, northern race:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/453
Beautiful spotting! Thanks for the ID update! You can add this to my mission: http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/8841...
My original Hyphantrea cunea ID was wrong! I just changed it.
LOL, TK, that's a funny way to put it. I don't think that A. oblinita has enough hair, though. He looks bald in comparison to this guy...
It looks like Acronicta oblinita with a bad hair day...
http://bugguide.net/node/view/484909
New photo uploaded. I don't know if it helps much, but I think it allows you to see that there are yellow spots along the side of the caterpillar.
I agree, with everything. The image uploader is just new, but I hope the upgrade could be added soon, especially as more users experience frustration.
Hmm, yeah, I don't think it's the Estigmene acrea, upon further investigation, lol... It's got too much orange.
It would be totally worth it. User frustration is killing the fun of the site.
From that photo it doesn't look like either one, but only you've seen the other images. As for the uploader, I've talked to Yasser and he says they offer automatic image scaling for the new image uploader but it's in an expensive premium upgrade. To me, its totally worth it.
I'm also not a fan of the new uploader. Oh well, I'm just awaiting the day when they increase the max file size!
Here are my guesses as to what this caterpillar is:
Estigmene acrea (http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?searc...)
-or-
Hyphantria cunea (http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?searc...).
Ah, the new image uploader, I'm not a big fan of it. I'm having the same problems and will have to resize my photos too. I have done it before in photoshop, but I can't be much help to explain how. Hopefully you can figure it out and we can see another view of this.
I do, Dan, but they're too high quality and I don't know how to reduce the image quality.
This is not the white marked tussock moth. It does not have the 4 tufts of hair near a red head and thick black antennae. This also has too much hair. I'm not sure what it is. Do you have any more photos of it?
:-)
Thanks, tibi!