CLOSED: Mystery Caterpillars

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CaptMicha Brookeville, MD(Zone 7a) Jun 22, 2006

I found these growing on my soloman's seal. They remind me of zebra longwing but the color's wrong and so is the host plant...

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CaptMicha Brookeville, MD(Zone 7a) Jun 22, 2006

They were a bright orange, they look translucent here b/c I was shooting towards the sky.

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trackinsand mid central, FL(Zone 9a) Jun 23, 2006

looks like some kind of sawfly to me.

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croclover Lake Forest, CA(Zone 10a) Jun 23, 2006

Don't sawflies make smaller round holes?

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ceejaytown The Woodlands, TX(Zone 9a) Jun 23, 2006

I agree with trackin.
http://www.bluewisteria.co.uk/bluewisteria.html?pest/sawfly.html

Here's a great site, full of sawfly photos....
http://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&keys=sawfly&search=Search

This message was edited Jun 23, 2006 12:10 AM

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croclover Lake Forest, CA(Zone 10a) Jun 23, 2006

Yikes! I think you guys are right! Great link ceejay!

I have sawflys on my roses right now. I guess I caught them before they started chewing bigger holes.

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trackinsand mid central, FL(Zone 9a) Jun 23, 2006

some sawflys skeletonize the whole leaf, others chew holes.

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CaptMicha Brookeville, MD(Zone 7a) Jun 23, 2006

Ugh! I thought they might be something special... How do you distinguish between lepidotera larvae and sawfly larvae?

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trackinsand mid central, FL(Zone 9a) Jun 23, 2006

ceejay would be better qualified to answer that question, but these guys always seem a little translucent to me and dotted and they have those little black noses, although i'm sure some may not have.

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ceejaytown The Woodlands, TX(Zone 9a) Jun 23, 2006

Oh gosh. They just look like sawflies. There are some borers that look similar, but they are inside the plant. Those heads, and the shape of the bodies.... I suppose if you want to get real technical, lepidoptera have 3 to 5 pairs of prolegs, and sawflies have 6 to 8, but I sure couldn't see them in the photo! LOL
Many sawflies have a peculiar defensive posture: they'll arch their rear end in an attempt to scare the predator away. Many also feed in groups. That's sort of a clue too....for in the future.

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