Patterned caterpillar

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Patterned caterpillar

August 26, 2012 by Mike Powell

I love the graphic black-and-white pattern on this caterpillar that I photographed yesterday at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, VA. The monochromatic pattern is wonderfully accented by the orange tufts with long white bristles. In this case, I am not too concerned about identifying this caterpillar—I am simply enjoying its colors, textures, and patterns.

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, caterpillar, orange, pattern | 8 Comments

8 Responses

on August 26, 2012 at 5:48 pm | Reply cindydyer

Pretty one! Here’s your identification: It’s a Cattail Caterpillar Moth (Simyra insularis):

http://bugguide.net/node/view/127547/bgpage

http://bugguide.net/node/view/16761/bgimage
- on August 26, 2012 at 6:00 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Cindy. I searched a bit and gave up too easily. Considering that I found it in an area that had lots of cattails at Huntley Meadows, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised at its name.
on August 26, 2012 at 8:11 pm | Reply krikitarts

What a little beauty!
- on August 26, 2012 at 11:43 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks.Courtesy of a friend, my beauty now has a name–the cattail caterpillar (catcat for short!).
on August 27, 2012 at 3:53 am | Reply Sue

Excellent clarity and contrast in this photo, Mike. Is this taken with a macro lens, and if so, what kind of lens is it?
- on August 27, 2012 at 4:31 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Sue, Once again this is my telephoto, not my macro. I have a 100mm Canon macro lens that I use for some of my shots but increasingly I have been shooting with my 55-250mm Canon zoom lens. (I have a cropped sensor so is equivalent to 88-400mm for a full frame sensor). I did tweak the image a little bit in Photoshop Elements, but the image did not require much at all. My setting for the shot were f16, 1/40 sec, ISO 400 and the lens was set at 200mm. I have heard that it’s best not to go full out on the zoom to get optimal sharpness. The lens is one of the Image Stabilized ones, which is why I was able to hand hold an exposure of 1/40 sec.
on September 26, 2012 at 6:35 am | Reply Colorful fall caterpillar « Mike Powell

[…] weekend. It looks a bit like the Cattail Caterpillar (Simyra insularis) that I photographed and described earlier this year, although the spiky red tufts are more extreme on this caterpillar. I think I can […]
on October 7, 2012 at 5:40 pm | Reply Barcode caterpillar « Mike Powell

[…] that my friend Cindy Dyer helped me identify earlier in the summer, when I did a posting entitled Patterned Caterpillar. The caterpillar’s real name is a Cattail caterpillar (Simyra insularis) and I photographed […]