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[John Lemen]

All - found another one of these big boys this year, and kept him this 
time. I poked him a bit, and he definitely has bright red intersegmental 
grooves, so I guess I have a Leopard Moth. Since I couldn't find a photo 
last year, will try and get a couple shots of him before I turn him loose - 
any suggestions on how to photograph him (on a ruler to provide a size 
reference, or ??) My college major was biology (30 years ago) but I didn't 
get into caterpillar photography !

Thanks !

-----Original Message-----
From:	John Lemen [COMPUSERVE:73530,317]
Sent:	Tuesday, October 20, 1998 11:14 AM
To:	'"DR. JAMES ADAMS"'
Cc:	'Doug Yanega'; 'Gary Anweiler'; 'Liz Day'
Subject:	RE: BIG Black Caterpillar

Thanks for your reply !  My wife found him on the ground in a flower bed 
under a bur oak while doing some fall yard clean-up chores. Unfortunately, 
we let the critter crawl off into the pachysandra to get ready for winter, 
but while I was observing it, I didn't notice any red color in the grooves. 
I found some photos 
(http://pooh.unl.edu/~scotth/samantha/leopard/leopard.html) that show that 
the groove color would have apparent. I couldn't get any sense of scale 
from those photos, but the specimens shown appear to be much smaller than 
the one I found. I didn't have much luck finding an index of caterpillar 
images on the web - any hints here would be appreciated ! (A trip to the 
library might be in order, also.)



Dear John,

         Don't listen to anyone saying something about sphinx moths.
Your caterpillar is probably a large nymphalid of some kind, or if it
is really bristly (hairy all over) then it is probably a tiger moth.  Where 
did you find it?  On the ground, on a branch, etc.?  Are there any
other distinguishing features (colored patches)?  If it is truly
black all over, it is probably the caterpillar of Hypercompe
(Ecpantheria) scribonia, the Leopard Moth.  If you still have the
caterpillar, try poking it a little to see if it will curl into a
ball.  Then look for the red intersegmental grooves.  If both of the
previous statements apply, then you've got a Leopard Moth.

               James