azalea caterpillar?

Thanks ChicquitaRajawali :)

Interesting... I knew about the pose but not the secretions. This one must not have been feeling agitated enough to take it to the next level. Thanks Eric!

Thanks Carol! It does look a fair amount like the Walnut Moth Datana integerrima (http://bugguide.net/node/view/3234), and they've been spotted in AZ... but I didn't find any where the coloring seemed quite right. I wish I'd gotten better photos of the bush it was feeding on. It's really common around here, but I don't know the name and now all the leaves have dropped.

Thanks Carol and Eric. I was really happy to get close to an ID, and hope to figure out the exact species eventually. Caterpillars are so much fun. :)

Thanks for the suggestion, auntnance... It looks a lot like a datana major, but as far as I can tell they don't live this far west. But it has to be something really close.

Thanks Pulkit.Singal and KarenL. It does look kind of like a little dragon. :)

Thanks Cindy, Doina, and Ashish! The pose was really neat to see... like it was king or queen of the bush. :)

Thanks Art3! I've never seen another caterpillar quite like it.