World's Biggest Caterpillar!

[Crossfire]

Stumbled upon this monster when he fell out of a tree in front of my house

Compared to my hand (I have really big hands!)

AAAAH its on the camera!!!

Compared to mom's hand

 

[delta]

Wow what a whopper !! So what will it become when it matures ?

 

[Crossfire]

A moth, not sure what species.
We've seen caterpillars like these before, but never this size. We just call them Heimlich Caterpillars

Edit:

Went googling


They are Eacles imperialis , or the Imperial Moth.

 

[delta]

So if the caterpillar's that big, how big is the moth!!! I take it you aren't in the UK 'cos I think I'd have noticed if we had caterpillars that mahoosive

 

[Crossfire]

So if the caterpillar's that big, how big is the moth!!! I take it you aren't in the UK 'cos I think I'd have noticed if we had caterpillars that mahoosive

Females are bigger than males, with wingspan from 3 1/8 - 6 7/8 inches (8 - 17.4 cm).

I'm from the US, East Coast, Maryland.
These monsters range from Maine to Nebraska, to the Florida Keys and everywhere in between.

 

[delta]

Cool, thanks for sharing

 

[Chad]

You should enter that into pet of the month!

 

[fluttermoth]

Wow, it's awesome!

 

[Crossfire]

You should enter that into pet of the month!

But it's not a pet, it's a wild animal


Besides, I released him back onto his tree hours ago

 

[lolobunnz]

I found one like that many years ago but it had multicolored balls on top not just yellow. Tried to hide it from mom. She found it and proceeded to tell me the next animal i bring home she is going to make me eat it. So i let the not so tastey looking guy go.

 

[Chad]

But it's not a pet, it's a wild animal

That's why I put the wink...I knew it wasn't a pet.

 

[Mikaila31]

Not a pet! Psssshhhhhh they make great pets. I have never seen that type of silk moth, but it doesn't live around me. I raise 2-3 types of native silk moth in the summer then some types of butterflies. They are pretty awesome very low cost/care pets. I have ~90 cocoons in my garage waiting for spring to come. Most of mine get around the same huge size if not a bit bigger. Some like the one in my avatar stay pretty small.

 

[Crossfire]

Dang! Those are very pretty caterpillars :3
Imperial Moths live almost everywhere east of the Rockies and south of canada. You're in Wisconsin, it's probably too cold and west for them. And too cheesy.


I dunno, I was taught to respect nature and it just feels wrong to take it out from nature to make it a pet.

Besides, I have no garage to store them in, I live in a townhouse

But I've always loved 'pillars. One time, at middle school, I found a roly poly fuzzy little guy, and I was planning to take it home to put in my garden, when some jerk was like "Kill it, it kills trees!" And smacked it out of my hand and stomped on it

I cried

 

[Mikaila31]

eh nature is harsh. They have a very very slim chance from hatching as an egg to actually becoming a moth. I know my adult female cecropia moths can lay close to 200 eggs. Now to keep a stable population only 2 of those offspring actually need to survive to replace the parents. So its pretty close to a 1% survival rate. Typical hazards are other insects, especially parasitic wasps and flies, and birds. Far as the eggs I hatch out I often get at least 60% to survive. What it really comes down to is what kinda moth/butterfly. I have 60 cecropia cocoons in my garage and there is certainly no way I would release all of those into the wild even though they are native. They are a part of nature but also separate in the fact they are captive bred and raised. I release some, but limit it as too many isn't a good thing for a animal that has a stable wild population. Now with monarch butterflies I collect eggs from milkweed plants and I have pretty much no limit to how many of those I will raise and release. Since their current population is down/below average and this years drought probably didn't help. They are not my favorite pillars but I usually raise at least one batch in early spring before the native year-round moths and butterflies take up my time.

I raise mine in an apartment. Then I just stick them in my folks garage in a cardboard box. They don't need anything for the next 6 months lol. Pretty much just forget about them till spring.

 

[Chad]

I believe in treating nature well but if I believed in leaving things in nature I couldn't have a fish tank.