Slug Caterpillars
The red crossed button slug, the caterpillar of a rather dull brown moth, is an utterly strange animal. It is a green oval with a cross in the middle of its back that looks like a bloody wound. The larva grows to about .394 inches and is found from the woodlands and forests of Connecticut to Missouri and down to Mississippi. It feeds on beech, cherry, oak, willow and other woody plants. The monkey slug, the larva of a butterfly that mimics a wasp, looks like the shed skin of a tarantula. It has 12 hairy arms, more or less, but it doesn't sting. It grows to about .984 inches and is found in the forest from Quebec down to Florida. The mature caterpillar can be found from June to November. Its food plants are apples, ash, birch, cherry, chestnut, dogwood, hickory and other woody shrubs and trees.
Prominents
The festive pine looper is a pretty caterpillar striped with orange, yellow, lavender, black and white. It grows to 1.4 inches and lives in the barrens and pine woodlands of New England. The mature caterpillar can be found from June till frost. Its food plant is pine. The back spotted prominent is an interesting caterpillar of another rather dull moth. It has lavender, orange and yellow stripes and a shiny skin. One generation grows in Connecticut. Its food plants are clovers, locusts, lead plants and legumes. It grows to 1.6 inches and can be found from May to November.
Papilionoidea
The orange dog is the caterpillar of a giant swallowtail. It is another weird beast that looks like a combination of bird dropping and snake head. The osmeterium, an organ usually found in the heads of swallowtail butterfly caterpillars, is bright red and forked like a snake's tongue. The larva grows to 2.16 inches and the food plants are trees from the citrus family. Its range is from western Connecticut to Florida and west to Texas. The yellow black and white striped monarch caterpillar is one of the most popular caterpillars. It is found in waste places, roadsides, farms, wet meadows, gardens and other open habitats. The eastern population migrates up from Mexico in the spring and summer and in Connecticut the mature caterpillar, which can grow to 2 inches long, can be seen from June till frost. The monarch caterpillar famously eats milkweed and in the end of its larval life turns into a beautiful, sea green chrysalis touched with dots of glittering gold.
Blues
The silver blue caterpillar lives in open habitats in New England and the upper Midwest into the Appalachians. It grows to less than .8 inches and is protected by ants, who love the honeydew it secretes. The caterpillars are found in late May and June, and its food plants are vetches, pea vines and other legumes. The eastern tailed-blue caterpillar is not quite a slug and barely reaches .394 inches in length. It can be green, yellow, pink, rose, purple or brown. It is found in meadows, waste places, powerline right of ways and sunny places. There are two or three generations in Connecticut and the mature caterpillar is seen from June onward. It eats herbaceous legumes.