It’s hard enough to identify moths and butterflies when they are fully grown—it seems almost impossible to do so when they are caterpillars, like this fuzzy white caterpillar that I encountered today at my local marshland park.
The caterpillar had so much long hair that it was hard to see the actual body, which might have been quite small for all I could tell. It was crawling around in the cattails on a day that featured intermittent rain. If you look closely at the first shot, you can see little water drops near what I think is the area of the head.
The second shot may look like it was done with flash, but the darker background was caused merely by changing the settings on my camera and deliberately overexposing the image.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Boy, those are sharp images! You are really getting professional quality macro images.
Thanks, Sue. I am trying to pay a lot of attention to my shots. These two shots were taken with my 55-250mm zoom lens. Because we had rain forecast and the skies were overcast, I didn’t want to use my macro lenses (no image stabilization, wanted a little more versatility, and fearful of getting them wet).
I learned last year that some hairy caterpillars are poisonous and can give you quite a nasty wound. I guess I was lucky as a kid. These shots are beautiful.
Gorgeous images, love the detail. I have never seen a caterpillar like the one in your photo. I would love to know what it is.
I’ll try doing a little research, but I am not optimistic that I will be able to identify the little caterpillar.
It’s a flannel moth caterpillar, I believe.
Wow. I”ll definitely check that out. This caterpillar has been my most-viewed post, which is pretty amazing.
[…] my eagle rescue post, for the longest time my most popular post was one with the innocuous title of Fuzzy white caterpillar. There is not a whole lot special about the prose or the photos, but it has had 489 views to […]
What location was this found?
It was found at Huntley Meadows Park, a marshland park in Alexandria, Virginia, for far from Washington DC.
Im thinking its a “Poisonous Hickory Tree Caterpillar”… :- )
But it is in fact a…
Spotted Apatelodes Moth [CATERPILLAR]
(Apatelodes torrefacta).
:- ) \m/ ❤
I definitely am no expert on caterpillar. It’s always nice to have help in identifying them.
Mike! I will have to recant my prior observstion! It first appeared to me that there were black hairs on its tail, however with my reading glasses on… I don’t see them now! As for the ID,
It has no black so I’ll concur with Katherine, it is a Flannel Moth Caterpillar, however.. Very young tho bcoz it isn’t as full of fur as itll get. It will actually burr up like a dreadlock.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Flannel+moth+caterpillar+-+Lagoa+crispata&client=ms-android-samsung&prmd=isvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjRrrXjx5DWAhVLPiYKHdwTBrwQ_AUIESgB&biw=360&bih=612
Im sorry! I hope this helped!
Bill
I occasionally have similar discussions with birding experts. Identification is so complicated, particularly when a particular subject is a juvenile or especially young one.
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What is this catipillar called?
I think it may be a Hickory Tussock moth caterpillar, but I am not sure of the identification.