Schizura concinna

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 4:12 pm

Otherwise known as the Red Humped caterpillar, http://bugguide.net/node/view/10259/bgimage. There are just some things that a person should not pick up and this looks like one of them. The caterpillars were feeding, I assume, on the leaves of a Persimmon tree. Photograph(s) taken during my lunch break at work.

EOS 350D
1/200 sec. @ f/16 ISO 400
Canon 60mm f/2.8 Macro
Built in flash
(Data for both images)

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 7:17 pm

Beautiful shots Ken...very cool subject also. Funny , when I first looked at the picture, I thought they were upside down

. I would say those spines and the rear up mean "do not touch"

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 2:28 am

Your probably right Doug. I did not research them any farther than BugGuide but I imagine that they might just cause some discomfort to anything that gets a hold of them. Probably a moth caterpillar of some kind, I did not notice when I looked them up. Thanks Doug

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 9:22 am

Wow -- these do look like nasty beasts -- I'm not gonna touch one either.

Researching the name, I don't find any references to them stinging. Apparently they do produce some defensive secretions.

From http://www.springerlink.com/content/t06623xl5928ru55/:

The larval defensive gland of Schizura concinna (J.E. Smith) is situated in the thorax and consists of two sacs joined by an interglandular neck. Its orifice opens into a transverse invagination of the integument at the cervical margin of the prosternite. The major component of the defensive secretion, formic acid, was identified as itsp-bromophenacyl ester. Ancillary components decyl acetate, dodecyl acetate, and 2-tridecanone from the anterior portion of the gland were identified by GLC and GS-MS.

Formic acid, eh? I guess some tricks are just so good they get used again and again by widely different bugs.

Google image search shows that the adult is a rather plain brown moth.

Nice pics!

--Rik

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 12:53 pm

Nice!

Very showy caterpillar for one uncomely moth.

Yours lunch breaks are very productive Ken.

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 3:03 pm

Thanks Nikola, Rik!

From what you have stated there Rik, the caterpillars need to come with a MSDS and a HAZMAT lable.