Insect Picture of the Day

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AJ Reardon sends in this great picture of a “squishy worm” she photographed outside her apartment. Like me, AJ often has trouble identifying species, but will try to get as close as possible. She has narrowed this caterpillar down to some kind of “freaky larva thingie”. I just want to say that this is the best trial identification I have received to date.

AJ points out that this insect looks a bit like a hornworm, but that the coloration was unusual: this bug was nearly translucent. I wish I could have been there to watch the photography session; watching a bug’s innards squoosh and splurt around inside its skin as it crawls around would certainly have made me lean more towards “freaky larva thingie” myself.

Also, I apologize to any of you who read that last sentence while trying to eat breakfast. To you I offer this hopefully helpful question: What on earth are you doing reading InsectPOD over breakfast? You realize you’re doing this to yourself, right? Seriously, what is the matter with you?

But I digress. I did some research on this critter, and it does indeed look to be some kind of hornworm. Some hornworms can actually change coloration over their lifetime, though I do not know if it an actual change in skin coloration or the coloration of their foodplant showing through translucent skin. In addition to the horn at the back, the angled stripes along the body are typical of these caterpillars. I suspect that this critter will become a Sphynx Moth, Subfamily Sphinginae, and if AJ took this in North America then it can be further specialized to Tribe Sphingini. (I didn’t know the taxonomy tree had “tribes” before today, did you?)

Awesome photo, AJ! Thank you!