update on mysterious milkweed caterpillars?

[Doug Yanega]

>I have now been told that the plant on which these caterpillars are
>feeding is california goldenrod (solidago californica.)  I still have
>not id. what they are though.  The largest is going on three inches now.
>Again with black & white banding, three long yellow strips the length of
>it's body.  The body is very smooth.  The very small ones tend to move
>along in an inch worm fashion and will rear up dramitically on their
>back legs when bothered.  Could they be some sort of large moth?  The
>caterpillers seem very butterfly like to me and as mentioned quite large
>so far.
>
>I found four more today but also found twice as many that have been
>parisitized.  The resulting wasp/fly pupa case is about half the size of
>a tachnid fly pupa case.  The coloring is dark with several light
>splotches.  Very colorful/interesting compared to other parasitic insect
>pupa I have seen.
>
>Please, please help.  The suspense is killing me!

Well, the larva sounds a bit like a noctuid looper (there are lots of
species), and the parasite is definitely an ichneumonid wasp. I've got
identical cocoons here on my desk at the moment, from various types of
lepidopteran hosts. Please don't die.

Peace,

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: 031-449-2579, fax: 031-441-5481  (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