Anyone know what he becomes? I left him in the woods. Saw a large brown moth last night.. Hitting my salvias right at dark.
Who's this big guy?
That's an Imperial Moth cat, it looks like he may be or may have been pupating:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/wildthing/images/imperialmoth.jpg&imgrefurl=http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/wildthing/imperialmoth.htm&h=360&w=180&sz=33&hl=en&start=15&um=1&tbnid=0VAGr9tqx67IOM:&tbnh=121&tbnw=61&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dimperial%2Bmoth%2Bcaterpillars%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN
They become a beautiful moth:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://insects.tamu.edu/images/insects/common/images/cd-43-c/img298.jpg&imgrefurl=http://insects.tamu.edu/images/insects/common/images/cd-43-c-txt/cimg298.html&h=512&w=768&sz=48&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=brO32nKvVhj-3M:&tbnh=95&tbnw=142&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dimperial%2Bmoth%2B%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG
Thank you for the id and that was definitely him/her,,,
will look for this moth.
The moth (?) I saw was flying very fast, so don't think it was him. It was also solid brown.
Elaine
Elaine, I read that the larvae will regurgitate their sticky and often toxic forgut contents on attackers such as ants and parasitoids.
So, maybe he did that liguid when you picked him up?
yep,, think that was the green stuff. I thought it was poopy.
Elaine