Unknown caterpillar

[Doug Yanega]

>I am not trained, but would like help identifying a large caterpillar I
>found.  I live in Bellingham, Wa., which is on the Pacific coast as far
>north and west as you can go.

Well, not exactly. My niece lives there, and you CAN go farther north and
west. ;-)

>He has 11 segments with pods on each segment.

If this is literally true then you've got a very large sawfly larva (a type
of herbivorous non-stinging wasp) in the family Cimbicidae, and neither a
moth nor butterfly, no matter what the rest of the description suggests.
There are two large Cimbicids in your area, but my reference with the
species names was lost in the mail.

Cheers,

Doug Yanega    Depto. de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas,
Univ. Fed. de Minas Gerais, Cx.P. 486, 30.161-970 Belo Horizonte, MG   BRAZIL
phone: 031-448-1223, fax: 031-44-5481  (from U.S., prefix 011-55)
                  http://www.icb.ufmg.br/~dyanega/
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82