Mystery Caterpillar Eating Japanese Maple

Comments Off
August 23rd, 2008 Permalink

While I scour David Wagner’s Caterpillars of Eastern North America to figure out what this critter is that’s eating my Bloodgood Japanese maple, I figured I’d post it here in case the experts among us can ID it first. Found two of them on the little tree while seeing Josh off to work this morning. [...]

Whats eating my Japanese maple?

What's eating my Japanese maple? Is this a checkered-fringe prominent?

While I scour David Wagner’s Caterpillars of Eastern North America to figure out what this critter is that’s eating my Bloodgood Japanese maple, I figured I’d post it here in case the experts among us can ID it first. Found two of them on the little tree while seeing Josh off to work this morning. They’ve done quite a number on what remains of the leaves after the summer’s Japanese beetle invasion. Will the maple make it to next year? Only time will tell. In the meantime, let’s figure out what this very hungry caterpillar is, shall we?

UPDATE: Do you suppose this is a checkered-fringe prominent? According to the description on page 314 of Wagner, “The caterpillar carves out a leaf notch in which it positions itself. From a distance of a few feet the caterpillar resembles a dead, curled-over leaf edge far more than it does food for a clutch of hungry nestlings.” This cat did indeed look like part of the leaf from a short distance, although I confess Lunch and Dinner really enjoyed them for breakfast.

Comments are closed.