Let's play can you name this bug

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It's about an inch long...it is a caterpillar type bug...it is black mostly with golden brown and white...it looks like a frayed piece of carpet yarn...it defoliated some kind of weed.

The county extension guy, who usually doesn't know bugs anyway, is at the state fair for a week.

-- Cindy (S.E.IN) (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), August 09, 2001

Answers

OOooo, OOooo. I'll go first.

Based on what I could find out, It sounds like a Milkweed Tiger Moth caterpillar (Euchaetias egle). From Audubon's Field Guide to Insects & Spiders:

"...is densley hairy with long tufts of black and white hair at each end, shorter tufts along sides, and orange hair down midline, which has short black hair on each side."

It apparently only eats milkweed, so you shouldn't have to worry about it eating any of your good stuff. Unless, of course, the little bugger ISN'T a Milkweed Tiger Moth. That's my guess. Who's next?

-- StevenB (thicketyrowfarm@aol.com), August 09, 2001.


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