Name That Caterpillar?

[Shiromisa]

I learned something interesting about Lunar Moths when I was researching this guy... Do you know why we don't see many of these guys as moths? They only live for about 7 days after emerging form their cacoons. They don't even have mouths! They don't eat. They change into moths simply to mate and then die.... I thought that was an interesting fact.

Then you should let it go so it can find it's mate. Luna moths are becoming increasingly rare. I live in the middle of the woods and I'm lucky if I see one a year. Please put that caterpillar back so it can possibly make more Luna's.

Yes, agreed! If it already has a limited time span to live, it should be doing it outside, where it can make the most of it.

[BigHicks1977]

Why are ya'll assuming I keep the Luna Moth?....and did not take its pic and put it right back in the wild AFTER it hitched a ride in on my cloths from walking the dog in the woods....HHHHHHHHHMMMMM 

[Elisto]

I work at a butterfly house, and yeah, it's true they don't have mouths and only live for a week as adults. Same as other moths in that family (Saturniids). However, they are at risk of getting eaten themselves as caterpillars. At our exhibit, we had 7 in a small potted tree outside the entrance, and started taking it inside at night because they kept getting eaten. Unfortunately, we accidentally left it outside one night after we were down to only 3, and something ate the last of them. They were almost ready to pupate too.

The reason we don't see them that much anymore isn't their short adult lifespan though, but is more likely increasing habitat loss. They used to be more common.

[Marigold]

I learned something interesting about Lunar Moths when I was researching this guy... Do you know why we don't see many of these guys as moths? They only live for about 7 days after emerging form their cacoons. They don't even have mouths! They don't eat. They change into moths simply to mate and then die.... I thought that was an interesting fact.

Yes!  The Luna moth only has a few days to live. They are pretty rare to come across.  I'm assuming you must live in an area with lots of wildlife habitat.  And I was about to say you must live in Virginia!  Land of the Luna!  Okay, I don't know if that is true but I saw my first Luna moth in Virginia.

Luna moths are my favorite moth...although I do love the rosy maple moth and oakworm moth a lot too.  And the Prometheus.  I like moths. 

[LittleSpiffy]

Why are ya'll assuming I keep the Luna Moth?....and did not take its pic and put it right back in the wild AFTER it hitched a ride in on my cloths from walking the dog in the woods....HHHHHHHHHMMMMM 

It wanted to check out your awesome toy collection.

I bet its clinging to a window from the outside, faintly tapping, trying to plead with you to let it play with your action figures.

[BigHicks1977]

Why are ya'll assuming I keep the Luna Moth?....and did not take its pic and put it right back in the wild AFTER it hitched a ride in on my cloths from walking the dog in the woods....HHHHHHHHHMMMMM 

It wanted to check out your awesome toy collection.

I bet its clinging to a window from the outside, faintly tapping, trying to plead with you to let it play with your action figures.

LOL You may be right and I need to figure out a way to take better pics of MIP figures cuz I have only showed ya'll a quarter of my toys 

[Kitkumi]

I have always wanted to see a real life luna month. They look so elegant. Onde when I was a little kid I saw a caterpillar like that one but it never made it to a cocoon.

[NovelNerd]

Why are ya'll assuming I keep the Luna Moth?....and did not take its pic and put it right back in the wild AFTER it hitched a ride in on my cloths from walking the dog in the woods....HHHHHHHHHMMMMM 

Probably because every time you've posted a rare creature you've mentioned keeping it for a pet or like the frog you fed to that mantis...just saying since you asked.

[BigHicks1977]

Why are ya'll assuming I keep the Luna Moth?....and did not take its pic and put it right back in the wild AFTER it hitched a ride in on my cloths from walking the dog in the woods....HHHHHHHHHMMMMM 

Probably because every time you've posted a rare creature you've mentioned keeping it for a pet or like the frog you fed to that mantis...just saying since you asked.

Oh I have two Mantis now and both have been bread with males and I was able to save the males and they both made there egg sacks that I was able to put in a safe and secure location in the forest and I am keeping the moth it has already spun its little silk sack in that green leaf in the picture and when that beautiful Luna moths comes out I will be sure to post a picture of it before I release it back into nature....I just wanted to know how ya'll assumed it 

[Shiromisa]

Why are ya'll assuming I keep the Luna Moth?....and did not take its pic and put it right back in the wild AFTER it hitched a ride in on my cloths from walking the dog in the woods....HHHHHHHHHMMMMM 

Probably because every time you've posted a rare creature you've mentioned keeping it for a pet or like the frog you fed to that mantis...just saying since you asked.

Oh I have two Mantis now and both have been bread with males and I was able to save the males and they both made there egg sacks that I was able to put in a safe and secure location in the forest and I am keeping the moth it has already spun its little silk sack in that green leaf in the picture and when that beautiful Luna moths comes out I will be sure to post a picture of it before I release it back into nature....I just wanted to know how ya'll assumed it 

I thought you said you'd put the mantis back outside? :/ While it's your choice what to do with wildlife you catch, it's really frustrating that you don't seem to realize what effect you're having on your local ecosystem.

[BigHicks1977]

Well its like this I live on a farm kind of in the woods and one of the farmers around here runs his bush hog every month or two and when he does it kills and hurts many MANY bugs and even animals I have found dead baby beer and rabbits and both of those female mantis had very damaged wings and could no longer fly...if you look close in the old pics you will see the blackness on the bottom of her...and the males I found for them were healthy so they went back in the wild after mating with the females but after mating and laying there egg sack they dont have much longer on this earth left and with the nights getting colder and there bad wings I have bought a large aquarium for them to live there last few weeks left as happy and healthy as they can......and as far as the Luna moth goes it is also in its own clean container and I am sure she will come out beatiful and healthy and she/he will have a great chance to find a mate and make more.....should I just let these beautiful creatures die.....alone....I am sorry I just cant do that even if what I did was against the law I would help these creatures out

[Midnight_Dream]

You may think what you are doing is for the best, but you would, in fact, be very wrong. You are not someone who is trained to properly care for these creatures and taking them out of their habitat is the wrong thing to do. The simple fact is you have posted before about taking in rare animals only for them to wind up being fed to another rare animal and how is that really helping them at all? Sure, that frog was not alone when it died, but do you think it cared about being alone while that mantis was eating it?! No. It wanted to live and you ruined its chance by being foolish and thinking you were doing something good when you were just cutting its life short. Was it worth it?

Honestly, it is people like you who are ruining the ecosystem not the guy that ride around on his motorbike through the woods. Sure, what he is doing may be bad, but he is not removing creatures from their habitats for no reason other than some lame science project that has no real science behind it. You are not a scientist and only they should be doing what you are attempting to do because they have studied the animals for years and know how to properly care for them. Do us all a favor and stop "saving" animals because you are just doing more harm than good in the long run.

Please, stop just...stop.

[Shiromisa]

You may think what you are doing is for the best, but you would, in fact, be very wrong. You are not someone who is trained to properly care for these creatures and taking them out of their habitat is the wrong thing to do. The simple fact is you have posted before about taking in rare animals only for them to wind up being fed to another rare animal and how is that really helping them at all? Sure, that frog was not alone when it died, but do you think it cared about being alone while that mantis was eating it?! No. It wanted to live and you ruined its chance by being foolish and thinking you were doing something good when you were just cutting its life short. Was it worth it?

Honestly, it is people like you who are ruining the ecosystem not the guy that ride around on his motorbike through the woods. Sure, what he is doing may be bad, but he is not removing creatures from their habitats for no reason other than some lame science project that has no real science behind it. You are not a scientist and only they should be doing what you are attempting to do because they have studied the animals for years and know how to properly care for them. Do us all a favor and stop "saving" animals because you are just doing more harm than good in the long run.

Please, stop just...stop.

Thank you for putting into words what I was too stunned to say.

At the very least, you'd think seeing that it upsets people here to see it would be enough to stop posting threads like this...

[Rosencrantz]

You are not Steve Irwin.

[BigHicks1977]

I wish there was someone you could call for a hurt insect....but there is not and lets be honest 9 out of 10 people would sooner step on then than help them out  and I did feed them a tree frog and to be honest they have eaten more than 10 tree frogs  tree frogs are not rare I am sorry if they are in some areas but here they are not and if I had a thread about a frog I owned eating bugs I dont think anyone would care....the facts are I like these little guys and I will keep doing what I am doing and more people seem to like the nice pic's I have posted of them than not.......you dont have to like what I do but you should respect my right to do it.....and a bush hog is a GIANT lawnmower