BIG Black Caterpillar

[Doug Yanega]

>Ok, but at three inches, wouldn't that be a little bit big for a woolly
>bear?  I have never seen them over 1.8 inches.  Is my experience in that
>regard an aberration or just a sign of my isolation from experience with
>certain species?
>--
>Pierre Plauzoles   ae779 at lafn.org
>Canoga Park, California

Hypercompe scribonia is (and James will correct me if I'm wrong) the
largest Arctiid in *most* (maybe not all) of the US, and three inches is
just about right for a mature, well-fed larva of that species. I guess you
just never came across one before...

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: 31-499-2579, fax: 31-499-2567  (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