Cecropia Caterpillar
Tim Eisele sends in this picture of a Cecropia Caterpillar. He took this picture in August of 2006 with his “old Sony digital camera, which did not have a macro lens”. As you can see, this did not matter.
The size of the moth is determined by the size of the caterpillar, and as you can see this baby is going to be gigantic. This is because Cecropia is not actually a moth, but a species of bat. The Cecropia mothbat! With glowing red eyes and glistening fangs, these unspeakable giant bugs drop onto…
(This is where you all chorus, “BATS AREN’T BUGS!”)
Hyalaphora cecropia, while not really a bat, does actually have a bird’s name: the Robin Moth. It’s no wonder: they have wingspans up to 12cm. This beautiful moth is, unfortunately, on the decline in the United States. According to BugGuide, tachinid flies were introduced to control gypsy moths. The flies parasitize gypsy moth caterpillars by laying eggs on them, but it appears that tachinids have no problems parasitizing H. cecropia as well.
Thanks, Tim! Great photo!
AJ said,
February 5, 2008 @ 12:24 pm
Great photo, Tim! That’s such a cool looking caterpillar.
tceisele said,
February 5, 2008 @ 1:06 pm
Thanks. So far, these still seem fairly common up here in northern Michigan, probably because we don’t have gypsy moths (and their associated tachinid flies) up here yet.
They aren’t quite big enough to take on a bat in hand-to-hand combat, though. There’s a spot on one of our campus buildings where bats like to hang out, and last year I found a complete set of Cecropia wings, sans body, on the ground right under the bats. And, a few days later, a set of Luna moth wings. Some bats must have eaten very well those nights.
Brian L. said,
February 5, 2008 @ 7:28 pm
Great picture! I love the yellow and blue knobs, but aren’t the thoracic knobs usually orange or red? Maybe they fade as the caterpillar gets older? I’m kinda curious
You should follow it up sometime with a photo of the moth itself some day, if you can find one.
Oh, and the “BATS AREN’T BUGS!!!” reminds me of a Calvin and Hobbes strip… Random thought.
Keep up the great work!
tceisele said,
February 7, 2008 @ 10:53 am
The thoracic knobs on this one actually are a bit more orange than the knobs running down the back of the abdomen, but I agree that the caterpillars I used to find as a kid seemed to have them more shaded towards red. Then again, that was downstate, about 500 miles from here and on the other side of Lake Michigan. I suppose it is a matter of geographic variability.
My uncle was a biology professor at University of Michigan, and he used to raise these caterpillars as experimental subjects to study insect metamorphosis (and, by extension, cell differentiation in other animals). He used them because (a) they were easy to raise; (b) they were native to the state, so if they got away from the netted trees he was raising them on they wouldn’t turn into an invasive species problem; and (c) they were so huge that they were way easier to examine and dissect than a more normal-size caterpillar would be.
The bit about the size sounds a lot like something Victor Frankenstein said:
“As the minuteness of the parts
formed a great hindrance to my speed, I resolved, contrary to my first
intention, to make the being of a gigantic stature, that is to say,
about eight feet in height, and proportionably large.”