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Io Moth Catepillar
Automeris io
26.0847, -80.24
Field Notes
Description:
As the larvae develop, they will lose their orange color and will turn bright green and urticating, having many spines The green caterpillars have two lateral stripes, the upper one being bright red and the lower one being white. When the caterpillars are ready, they spin a flimsy, valveless cocoon made from a dark, coarse silk. Some larvae will crawl to the base of the tree and make their cocoons amongst leaf litter on the ground, while others will use living leaves to wrap their cocoons with. The leaves will turn brown and fall to the ground during autumn, taking the cocoons with them. There they pupate, the pupa being dark brown/black. The pupae of the females are considerably larger than those of the males.
Habitat:
It ranges from the southeast corner of Manitoba and in the southern extremes of Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick in Canada, and in the US it is found from North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, east of those states and down to the southern end of Florida.
Females lay small, white ova in the leaves of host plants, including, but not limited to:
Prunus pensylvanica — Pin cherry
Salix — Willow
Abies balsamea — Balsam fir
Acer rubrum — Red maple
Amorpha fruticosa — Bastard indigo
Baptisia tinctoria — Wild indigo
Carpinus caroliniana — American hornbeam
Celtis laevigata — Texas sugarberry
Cephalanthus occidentalis - Button-bush
Cercis canadensis — Eastern Redbud
Chamaecrista fasciculata — Showy Partridge Pea
Comptonia peregrina — Sweetfern
Cornus florida — Flowering dogwood
Corylus avellana — Common hazel
Fagus — Beech
Fraxinus — Ash
Liquidambar styraciflua - American Sweetgum
Quercus - Oak
Notes:
The spines have a poison that is released with the slightest touch, that cause a lot of pain if touched.
This photo was taken on PRIVATE PROPERTY.
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