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Live oak tussock moth larva

Orgyia detrita

Photo by auntnance123
Published on Project Noah
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29.2323, -81.9057

Field Notes

Description:

1 1/2 inches

Habitat:

spotted crawling and falling from oak trees

Species ID Suggestions

Live Oak Tussock Moth

Orgyia detrita

Reference Link
Jacob Gorneau
2

Comments (7)
Jacob Gorneau
Yes; just a variation as you can see the two white spots and the larger orange spot on the last two segments.
auntnance123
Question: the two caterpillars are same species in spite of their different coloration?
Jacob Gorneau
Wow! Nice spotting! This one took me a while. I think I have found another ID indicator. On the back half of the caterpillar, see how there is an orange dot between two smaller white dots on the black stripe right down the middle? There are only two of those, and it is missing on the one missing between the white hair and the other orange dot. :)
alicelongmartin
I have never seen anything like it. I wonder if Dr. Santana would know.
auntnance123
Yes. There were hundreds of these cateppillars in this location. These two colors predominated.
Latimeria
Are these two separate individuals grouped together into one spotting?
Photographed
PublishedApril 11, 2011

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