Home 9 Highlands NC and Cashiers NC 9 Red-Spotted Purple Caterpillar

Red-Spotted Purple Caterpillar

Red-spotted_Purple_Caterpillars_highlands_nc

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Photographed By: Clay Bolt

Full grown larvae are approximately 1.6 inches in length (Minno et al. 2005) The head is brown and fringed with short spines and has a cleft on top. The body is olive green to greenish brown with a pinkish white saddle and a white lateral line. There are a pair of long, thick, branched horns on top of the prothorax and a small pair of branched spines on top of the posterior end and several humps on the back. The larvae are birddropping mimics. They are very similar in appearance to viceroy larvae but are less spiny (Minno et al. 2005). Caterpillars of species in the genus Limenitis are our only horned bird dropping mimics (Wagner 2005).

 

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