How to Identify Caterpillars in Ohio

How to Identify Caterpillars in Ohio

• 1

  Check out all the resources found at any parks in Ohio. A majority of quality parks will have field guides, or even handouts, with color photos of caterpillars and their hosting plants found in their region. These would be kept in their resource materials collection.

• 2

  Go online and find a multitude of resource PDFs offered by The Ohio State University Extension on caterpillars. Most will be focused on those caterpillars that are categorized as pests or poisonous, but it does include quite a good cross-section of butterfly and moth species found in Ohio.

• 3

  Search the Discover Life database by selecting the state filter which will give you a high-quality, full-color running pictorial photo gallery of all the major caterpillars specific to Ohio.

• 4

  Bring along your pictorial resources gathered at your nature centers or key Ohio websites when exploring the caterpillar-rich prairies and wetlands and other key caterpillar habitats of Ohio. If you have an iPhone, you can download insect ID apps.

• 5

  Note the color, patterning and texture of the caterpillar found and identify it through your pictorial resources. You can place the caterpillars in a jar temporarily for close observation, and place a magnifying glass up to the specimen if it is too small for easy eyeballing when identifying.

• 6

  Familiarize yourself with the plant species hosting the caterpillar. All caterpillars have a particular food source that they thrive on. This will provide additional support for identifying the caterpillar correctly.