Monday, September 2, 2013

Eight Spotted Forester

In June, we found this beautiful caterpillar and identified it at that time. I was recently going through all the vineyard images that we took, reliving our first season. I came upon this photo and couldn't remember what it was. Finally, after about 20 minutes of searching on the Internet, I was able to locate a site that identified the caterpillar. I thought I would blog about it, belatedly, so that I don't forget, again!
This is the caterpillar of the Eight Spotted Forester, Alypia octomaculata. They range from Maine and southern Quebec to Florida and west to South Dakota and Texas. The caterpillar feeds on grapevines and Virginia creeper.1 Ah, that explains it. It belongs to the Family Noctuidae, or the owlet moth. A relative of the Eight spotted forester that also attacks grapevines is called the Psychomorpha epimenis or the grapevine epimensis.
I found an image of the Eight Spotted Forester moth at A Prairie Haven.2 The eight Spotted Forester moth looks like this:
A very appropriate descriptive name, wouldn't you say.
References:
1. Butterflies and Moths of North America.
2. A Prairie Haven

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