Some moments are painful! This is the caterpillar of the Io (eye-oh) moth and those spikes can deliver a powerful sting. This is a large native moth and you can read more about it here (great pictures too).
I was on a group ramble/hike and we stopped to look at a plant and the caterpillar fell down from above and landed on my calf. My pants were a thin material and I could almost immediately feel a light sting. A friend helped get it off with a stick and we put it back in the vegetated area. [I had no lasting effects from the brush with it.]
These moths are generalists and eat the foliage of many of the native trees that we'd already identified on the hike. I had never seen the caterpillar before so this was actually a great #momentinnature for me.
August is a great month to see caterpillars in nature. Here is a blog I did about finding caterpillars in 2018 (and it has links to two earlier posts so you may find those interesting too). Get out there and find your moment!
Gorgeous moth!
ReplyDeleteBack in 2015 I found a buck moth caterpillar at my house, very cool.
Some time back, I was helping someone clear the pond bank, we cut down a tree that was covered in stinging caterpillars!
Wish I'd had a camera at the time! I don't think we ever bothered to identify them, other than "stinging cats".