Crowned Slug

Isa textula

September 27, 2004

I found this beauty on a cherry tree.  It's a last instar larva of what will become a rather dull-looking  limacodid moth.  It would be safe to say that, like many in the Slug Caterpillar Moth family, the moth's most impressive expression of life lay in the caterpillar form.

Note the stinging spines surrounding it - and how the head looks like the edge of the chewed leaf.  This species eats the leaf straight across, with only the very tip of the head breaking up the 

leaf outline.

September 29, 2004

New Development!

The caterpillar had formed

a cocoon overnight.  I guess

I'll overwinter it and see if I

can get a shot of the adult.

I have records of them in my

yard in June and July, so it'll

be a bit of a wait.