One morning I was getting ready for work, following our usual routine in putting in and out the dogs (dogs like routine, so we do it the same way every day) when I spotted a beautifully bright, lime green caterpillar crawling up one of the posts on the doghouse porch. It was pretty good sized, so I figured it wouldn’t be long before it headed into the pupa stage. I wanted to make sure I got some good photos before that happened, so despite the routine, I ran inside to get my camera. I run on a pretty tight schedule in the mornings, but I can always fine a couple minutes to take photos if a good subject comes along! The dogs were a bit put out that they had to wait a few minutes for their morning biscuits, but they somehow survived.

While I was shooting photos, the caterpillar was pretty active, crawling along the post like it was headed somewhere special. I’m not sure where it was headed since it was moving up the post towards nothing but the roof, but if I’d had more time I would have sat and watched it. Even though it definitely seemed to be headed somewhere, it’s not like it was moving at such a great pace that I couldn’t get some decent shots. While it was moving it kept humping up in the middle and then stretching out, kind of like an inchworm, but it was much larger than any inchworm I’ve ever seen. It was definitely an intriguing subject. I wish I’d had more time to watch it. By the time I got home that afternoon it was long gone to who knows where.

The next step was trying to identify this beautiful caterpillar. Florida has quite a few green caterpillars; not really surprising when you think of how many moths and butterflies we have here. Some of these green caterpillars are very distinctive and could quickly be ruled out, but there were two that really fit the description of this guy almost perfectly. The two things that really distinguished the two is that the other one had small, bristly hairs which my specimen did not, and the fact that one moves like an inchworm, while the other just crawls! I do so love it when my observations help me with identification!

It turns out that this particular caterpillar was a copper underwing moth caterpillar. The copper underwing moth is a fairly drab brown and black moth until it spreads its wings and shows off it’s gorgeous copper colored hind wings. They are usually on the wing in late summer and early fall which completely fits my observations once again. For that to happen, the caterpillars had to have begun their pupa stage by now. Before becoming a pupa, the caterpillars eat, and eat, and eat! They are not fussy eaters and will eat pretty much any broadleaf plant including oaks, raspberries, dewberries, hawthorn, and viburnum. Except for hawthorn, I have all of those things in my yard, and in fact, I have lots of viburnum. I planted quite a bit of it along my fence lines, driveway, and in front of the house years ago. I like it because it grows quickly, provides good shade and privacy, and is not appealing to goats or deer. Every year something eats quite a few of the lower leaves on the viburnum, and I’ve always wondered what it was. Now I know! They never eat enough to cause any major damage to adult plants, and I know that from plant eating caterpillars come beautiful butterflies and moths, so even if I had found the culprit on my viburnum, I wouldn’t have done anything about it. I hope that later this summer I can get some photos of the adult moths. These moths can be found across most of the United States and into southern Canada, so you may well have them where you live, too.