Hobbies And Interests
Spun Glass Slug
The spun glass slug is the caterpillar of a dull-looking moth, but it has dozens of glittering spines radiating from its body. It gets its name because it's transparent; you can see its internal organs. Yet the spines do sting. This caterpillar grows to less than 1/2 inch long and is found in the woods from Missouri to southwestern New York and south to Florida and Texas.
The Mourning Cloak
The caterpillar of the mourning clock is a black caterpillar with white spots, red blotches along its back and shiny black spines. It lives at the edges of woods and wetlands and city parks and is found from Canada to Northern Florida. It grows to just over 2 inches and eats willow, poplar, elm, hackberry and birch leaves.
The Long Wings
The Julia caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly but it's formidably armed with long shiny spines with needlelike branches. It grows to 1 3/4 inches long and is found in scrub thickets, watercourses, pineland and open woodland in Florida and Texas. Like the other long winged larvae, it eats the leaves of the passionvine. The Gulf fritillary caterpillar also has black shiny spines. The caterpillars are shiny overall with the warning colors of orange and red. It lives in the Gulf states and grows to 1 3/4 inches long. The zebra is another pretty butterfly but has a caterpillar armed with shiny black spines as well. The caterpillar is white with black polka dots and also grows to 1 3/4 inches long.
Scarlet Winged Lichen Moth and Others
The scarlet winged lichen moth has a black body mottled with bright yellow and long black shiny spines that emerge from the patches of black along its body. It lives in the woods from southern Canada down to Florida and eats lichen and blue green algae that grows on trees, falling logs and rocks. It grows to about 1 1/3 inches long. The American lady also has a caterpillar with shiny spines, as does the common buckeye, the variegated fritillary, the ruddy daggerwing and the Baltimore.