r/caterpillars

It had a load of green dots I assumed were eggs, so I popped them in a jar with plenty of leaves for when they hatched.
Then I thought oh hang on it’s been eating the leaves that’s probably poo.
I asked Siri what caterpillar eggs looked like and it didn’t look like that and he couldn’t show me what their poo looks like.
So I seperated them, one jar for the caterpillar one for the poo…. Eggs… pegs, if you will.
I got home from work and the caterpillar has ALOT of green dots around it.
I know they just eat all day but that’s either ALOT of eggs or a LOT of poo.
Come to think of it, butterflies lay eggs….. not caterpillars…
so I feel like I just answered my own question.
But confirmation would be appreciated ty 🩵
Also if anyone knows exactly what it will turn into I’d love to see :)

I have a butterfly and moth garden, but this little guy looks nothing like any of the caterpillars I try to attract to my yard. It kinda looks like a deaths head hawk moth, but this one doesn't have blue markings.

Can anyone help identify? I'm in Southern Florida. Zone 10a.

From everything I can find, caterpillars are usually unable to chew through skin. Is this a particularly determined one, or not a caterpillar at all?

I lost half of my caterpillars due to poisoned leaves a few days ago. I live near an orchard and they must have sprayed pesticide that drifted into my tomato plants. I put down the ones that were were suffering and isolated the ones I wasn't sure about. They're now in the process of molting but I'm wondering if this liquid around them in normal? I don't recall seeing this much liquid around the non poisoned ones. Could they still be suffering from the poison but are just unable to move due to the tight skin?

Lil guy is soo fuzzy. Very sensitive to touch, long antennas on both ends??

Located in North Dakota lol. Thanks!

Don't mind the messy car lol

Worked 3, 24 hour shifts in 5 days went to go check my parsley plant and found these guys

Edit: Update for little baby caterpillars in comments

I’m hoping someone with experience with swallowtails might be able to help me understand what happened here.

3 days ago, some community landscaping workers were pruning tree branches. I noticed a fifth-instar citrus swallowtail caterpillar on one of the branches that had been cut off, so I brought it home temporarily rather than leaving it on the fallen branch.

It has now pupated, but something seems to have gone seriously wrong during the molt.

As you can see in the photos, most of the larval skin has been shed and a green chrysalis has formed, but the old head skin seems to be stuck. The lower part of the larval skin came off, while the head capsule and what appears to be part of the mouthparts did not shed properly.

It has been more than 10 hours now, and the remaining skin has dried and hardened.

The chrysalis is still green and does not appear to have collapsed or leaked fluid. I’m not sure whether it is still alive, and I have been trying not to disturb it.

I know that interfering with a chrysalis can easily do more harm than good, so I have not tried to pull, cut, or remove the stuck skin.

I would really appreciate any advice from people who have seen something similar:

Is this a known type of failed or incomplete pupation?

Is there still a chance that the butterfly can complete its development and emerge normally?

Should I simply leave it alone at this point?

If the old skin has dried and hardened around the head, is there any safe way to help, or would attempting to soften or remove it be more likely to kill it?

Is there anything I should watch for that would indicate whether the chrysalis is still alive?

I’m mainly trying to figure out whether the best thing I can do now is leave it completely alone, or whether there is some appropriate way to help. Thank you very much for any advice or insight.

Note how he slows down a tiny bit when he comes to a vein in the leaf

About the size of my little finger

Michigan, US

Apparently, caterpillars like broccoli leaves quite a bit. No wonder I have been seeing yellowjackets buzzing around this plant.

My initial googling was unsuccessful! It was about two inches long, and I’m in the southeast Michigan area.

I work in landscaping and rescued this caterpillar off my coworker's pants during a break last week. It seems to be an eyed hawkmoth. We were working in a bioswale, cutting willows, so it made sense to me.

I've been trying to raise it, but it seems really picky about the willows that I feed it. Didn't like cuttings from the area it came from that much (Pacific[?] willow), really doesn't like weeping willow leaves from my tree in the yard, but seems really keen on Northwest willow, which is native around here but was absent where we were working.

All the resources online suggest they're fine with any willow or sallow or sometimes other things. It doesn't seem like it has parasites or diseases. So what gives.

I've been wondering whether it might prefer baby leaves over older leaves. Or if it is not what I ID'ed it as at all. I'm a scientist and lifelong naturalist, but I get things wrong sometimes.

For reference, the dominant plants in the bioswale it came from were: Pacific willow, red alder, various conifers (👎), wild rose, spirea, and lotsa lotsa blackberries. No poplars or other stuff that related species eat.

Help me out here. If I have to walk half a mile a day to get fresh Northwest Willow leaves I will. Don't tell me to just feed it with what I found it on, because that's my coworker. It might not even have come from where we were working. Also, I could just toss it outside somewhere but that's a death sentence anyway in most scenarios.

TL;DR: Looking for ID confirmation that this is an eyed hawkmoth and asking whether certain types and qualities of willow leaves are better than others. If not eyed hawkmoth, what should I be feeding it. Stat.

Please help me identify what this is and how venomous it is. We are in northeast Georgia USA.

She’s also got a new roommate! A random bagworm was hiding on some of the food cuttings I just gathered for her.
I will likely return him to the wild soon, but I would love to observe him for a bit as I haven’t had much experience with bagworms. I made sure they both have plenty of food and space and that the bagworm has access to materials to build his shelter with.

Dear Gardening UK~ers,

Please can you help identify what type of caterpillar is, please, and whether we have a problem imminently, in our Manx, (Isle Of Man, British Isles!), garden,please? He has quite a few cilia, (hairs) on him and has a bigger protrusion just behind his head and a smaller one just by his rea end, both running along the central darkness of where his central back is and he has a couple of yellowish stripes on his flanks also. I spotted him this afternoon around 4:30pm setting about trying to chow down on a rose Bush by our front garden path, noted he couldn't get a grip, or did not like eating the rose leaves, and so he turned about tail and wrigglingly made his was to the rose bush stem, which is where you see him now wrapped around a main stem of the rose bush.

Any help appreciated.

Kind regards from a Manx Bloke, bemused by critters like this, and, regrettably, by gardening, generally, much to my eternal shame and chagrin.

😀

Been awhile since I seen one so I was pretty hyped.