Luna Moth Caterpillar in Pre-Pupal Stage

Luna Moth Caterpillar in Pre-Pupal Stage, Snellville, Georgia, October 2019

The photos in this blog post show a rarely-seen yellow Luna Moth caterpillar. I say “rare” because it appears that Luna Moth caterpillars become yellow, instead of their usual green, during their pre-pupal stage.

(Note: Caption is not working correctly. Same caption as first picture.)

Earlier this week, a colleague of mine in Boy Scouts emailed me some photos of caterpillars, requesting that I assist in the identification of them. The photos in this post of the Luna Moth caterpillar are those she took in October 2019, and she gave me permission to post them here.

The thing is – I was unable to precisely identify this caterpillar! I think that’s a first for me in my entire life, LOL! I reached out to a contact at the University of West Georgia for his insights, and he correctly identified it. If you compare it to photos of other Luna Moth caterpillars in pre-pupal stage, as seen on Google images, they are an exact match!

Thank you, Denise and Greg, for your interest and insights.

Angus Datana Moth Caterpillars in August 2018

Angus Datana Moth Caterpillar, Snellville, Georgia, August 11, 2018

There are so many types of caterpillars that love eating leaves of oak trees. In the summer of 2018, caterpillars of the Angus Datana Moth were feasting well on my young Willow Oaks.

Angus Datana Moth Caterpillars, Snellville, Georgia, August 11, 2018

Those poor trees – it’s a wonder they don’t die after being stripped of their leaves by so many different caterpillars! The caterpillars have a hearty appetite and don’t leave much left of the the small trees – especially the Orange-Striped Oakworms who eat almost all of the leaves on these trees!

Again, I’m catching up with posting some photos that have been in my picture gallery on my camera for awhile. Unfortunately, the picture quality isn’t better as it was a cloudy day when I took the photos.

Orange-Striped Oakworms on Willow Oak in August 2019

Orange-Striped Oakworms on Willow Oak, Snellville, Georgia, August 22, 2019

For the past two summers, there have been hoards of Orange-Striped Oakworms on three of my young Willow Oak trees. The parent butterflies of these oakworms seem to like the smaller, younger trees, and surprisingly, there have been no caterpillars on the larger Willow Oak that is in my yard.

Lots of Orange-Striped Oakworms on Willow Oak, Snellville, Georgia, August 22, 2019

These caterpillars have literally stripped all three of the smaller trees. I did my best to take each caterpillar off of the younger trees and place them on the larger tree before there was nothing at all left for them to eat. I guess they did well in 2018 because they were right back again in 2019! The pictures in this post are from August 2019 since I’m a bit behind in making posts.

Small Tiger Swallowtail in April

One of my first butterfly sightings of this year was a small Tiger Swallowtail that I saw while leaving work in Norcross, Georgia in the afternoon on April 17, 2020. (I think the first one I spotted this year was a Giant Sulphur earlier in that same week.) It had just landed highly up in a tree, so I had to zoom in my phone camera to grab a picture. At first, it was so small that I thought it might be a Zebra Swallowtail – which are rare in Georgia and more prevalent in Florida – but it turned out to be a Tiger. It caused me take a moment to enjoy nature a bit more; I’m happy to have seen it sunning itself on that beautiful day!