Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Caterpillars that Sting: Pictures of Saddleback Caterpillars (Acharia stimulea)

I was picking up some rose pruning clippings today when I felt a stinging sensation on my hand. I have never seen this little creature before, but my daughter identified it as the Saddleback Caterpillar, which she had previously seen in one of her science books. Unknown to me, these little creatures can actually sting you from their four distinctive spines. The first picture includes three caterpillars. The second picture includes one of the unhatched eggs. The caterpillar matures into an unremarkable brown moth, that you can see on bugguide.net.

3 comments:

Pat said...

I'm glad you put the link to "bugguide" on your post. I had a had time seeing the caterpillar.

I have a blogger question.
If I saw something from 2006 that I wanted to ask about, where would I post the question? Unless a notice is e-mailed to you of a new comment you would never find it?

Thanks for any help.

Patsi

Ewa said...

Oh my, what is this? I never saw it before. Doesn't look inviting.
Greetings,
Ewa

Julia Erickson said...

Patsi,

It depends how you set up your comments. I review comments before they appear on my site to avoid inappropriate comments (rare) or advertisements (common). Thus, I see all comments that are put on any post no matter how far back.

Regards,

Heirloom Gardener

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