saddleback caterpillar

[butrfly at epix.net]

nina elshiekh wrote:
> 
> I was looking through an eyewitness series book on moths and butterflies
> and found a picture of a strange caterpillar that I'd seen last august
> hanging out on my passionvine.  It was a saddleback and from the
> description it was a full grown one.  The book noted that this is a more
> tropical species, so i wonder if it is an uncommon site here in North
> Carolina.  Is the passionvine it's host plant?
> 

Sibine stimulea, the saddleback, feeds on apple, cherry, pawpaw, oak, blueberry,
corn,and rose. The larvas only an inch long at maturity. It can be found from
MA to Fl and west to Missouri. The spines can be painful against the skin.

Rick Mikula