lots of great butterfly pics..but can anyone id this ?

[lovemypt]

Hi

 I have seen lots of great butterfly pics on this but can anyone tell me who this caterpillar is??

Thanks
Dave

[Rob'in'To]

A White-bumped-hairy-red-spiked thing!   :?   LOL!

[lovemypt]

nice guess Rob  :lol:  , but I expect someone is going id it as some simple tomato bug of some kind!

[Ground State]

Lovemypt:

The difficulty at identifying this one is quite understandable! It is a Imperial Moth caterpillar, but if you look up pictures of this one you may find that the photo in a typical field guide is completely different than your specimen. More than any other caterpillar in Ontario, this one has plenty of different colour forms. Sometimes different ones appear spontaneously in a single clutch of eggs! I read writing from a published naturalist once who asked, "What might be the ecological and evolutionary consequences of the various forms?" Anyway, check out some more pictures. You'll find bright green ones and even bright bright red! The adult moth is actually quite beautiful compared to the usual drab earth tones. Here's a great shot:

http://www.ianimals.com/animals/imperial_moth.jpg

[lovemypt]

Thanks Ground State

  Now that I have a starting point, I looked up the images on Google. Thank you for the id, this was not something I usually chase after. This specimen was quite large and only noticed after a fox came along and stopped to sniff at it for a while but decide not to try a bite and moved on. I thought perhaps it was a butterfly of some sort but it is probably getting later in the season for those to still be caterpillars.

Dave

[Ground State]

This is neat.... check out how subtle the differences are on this one compared to your photograph. If one were concentrating on the colour of the body and the horn-like protrusions on the head (which, to us bird watchers, would seem to be key features that we WOULD indeed concentrate on), the identification would be really hard! Insects are so damn tough. That's why I like trying to solve these posts... they're like little puzzles!

[lovemypt]

most of the images on Google Images were of the green variety

[Pat Hodgson]

Imperial moth (Eacles imperialis) is a reportable species to NHIC in Ontario, if you are so inclined to fill out the form online.
http://nhic.mnr.gov.on.ca/MNR/nhic/spec ... report.cfm