[LEPS-L:7942] Re: ASPS (the name of a stinging caterpillar in Texas)

[jandwdic at postoffice.swbell.net]

   Thanks for your reply. No one I have ever talked to in this area was
aware of the fact that these were the larva of a moth. It was really
irrelevant to those of  us who had to live with them. All you had to
know was that they stung like the dickens, and it was best to avoid
them. Even that wasn't enough. The clumsy little bastards seem to be
forever falling out of trees. That's how they sting you. They just slip
and fall on you.
   If you are already familiar with them through your studies, let me
tell you from first hand experience, that whatever you have read about
the intensity of their sting....is not enough to describe it. They are
some ferocious little bastards. I have never been stung by a portugese
man-o-war (a sea creature), but from what I have heard, an asp is a
mini-version of it.
    If you find any source for more info on them. please post it. I
would love to know a little more about this little creature that is a
bit of a Texas legend.

   Thank you.




"DR. JAMES ADAMS" wrote:

> You actually *are* talking about a moth, at least an immature one,
> so there are several people on this list who probably know exactly
> what you are talking about.  The caterpillars you refer to are the
> larvae of the family Megalopygidae, also known as Flannel or Puss
> Moths.
>
>         In Texas, there are several species, depending on where you
> are.
>
>         James
>
> Dr. James K. Adams
> Dept. of Natural Science and Math
> Dalton State College
> 213 N. College Drive
> Dalton, GA  30720
> Phone: (706)272-4427; fax: (706)272-2533
> U of Michigan's President James Angell's
>   Secret of Success: "Grow antennae, not horns"
>
>
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