What is tii hi s caterpillar? - Ask Extension
Good afternoon,
My children and I found what we thought was an orange striped oak worm caterpillar, which turns into a moth. However, it molted an...
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What is tii hi s caterpillar? #807318
Asked August 21, 2022, 3:22 PM EDT
Good afternoon,
My children and I found what we thought was an orange striped oak worm caterpillar, which turns into a moth. However, it molted and formed what looks like a chrysalis rather than a cocoon in an earthen cell. What type of caterpillar and butterfly do you think we found?
Best,
Jean, Natalie, & Andrew
Montgomery County Maryland
Expert Response
Hi Jean!
This is the pupa of an Orange-tipped oakworm moth (Anisota senatoria). Cool find! Check out some photos here on Maryland Biodiversity Project.
Jamie
Hello there!
May we ask some followup queastions? My children were wondering…
-if it going to turn into a moth, why did it make a chrysalis instead of a cocoon? Our understanding is that in general moths make silken cocoons and butterflies go inside a hard chrysalis.
-I read that this type of caterpillar burrows to make an earthen cell to pupate in. We put a cup with 4 inches of dirt into the habitat we made for it but it didn’t use it. Is this it’s earthen cell?
-when will it emerge? My reading on the orange tipped Oakworm is that it pupates over winter & emerges in spring? Any idea on the number of weeks it might pupate or the month it typically emerges?
-when will it emerge? My reading on the orange tipped Oakworm is that it pupates over winter & emerges in spring? Any idea on the number of weeks it might pupate or the month it typically emerges?
If you have any additional links for us to read about it, we’d love to check them out. Thanks in advance for considering our questions.
Best,
Jean
Hello Jean,
The life stage between caterpillar and adult for both moths and butterflies (plus several other types of insects) is called a pupa. The pupa of butterflies in particular is often referred to as a chrysalis, whereas for moths, it has no special name and is just referred to as a pupa. This could be because part of the root word for chrysalis is derived from the Greek word for "gold" (khrusos), and a number of butterfly species (especially in the tropics) have a chrysalis with golden, silvery, opal, or otherwise metallic-looking colors or spots. Moth pupae, in comparison, tend to be fairly dull and usually brown-black or tan-brown and a uniform color. Since butterfly pupae were more jewel-like, they became associated with chrysalis.
Many moths make a silken cocoon around their pupa for camouflage or protection against the elements, but not all. Butterfly caterpillars use silk when preparing to transform into their chrysalis (pupate), but they only use it to secure the chrysalis to the plant (or whatever structure they're using for support) and generally don't go any further than that. Some moth caterpillars pupate in the ground, as you noted for this species, so instead of a cocoon they just tunnel into the soil, wiggle around to make a little pocket of space, and pupate inside that chamber. Sometimes when kept captive they might just pupate "naked" and not in soil. Perhaps the soil texture was too loose or too dense for it to want to use it. It probably won't affect its ability to survive, though you may be able to gently bury it a few inches for insulation.
Insects being kept captive which spend the winter in a kind of hibernation should be overwintered in a chilly area, close to ambient temperatures outside or even in the fridge (not freezer). If outdoors, keep the cage sheltered from the worst of the weather and from waterlogging due to rain/snow; if indoors, use a breathable container in the fridge that can maintain a little bit of humidity without getting moldy. Put the container outside as the weather warms in spring so the moth can emerge "on time" based on environmental cues. Otherwise, kept inside in constant warmth, the moth may emerge too early. While the adults in this particular family of moths cannot eat, it would miss-out on the opportunity to mate if emerging too early when you can't let it go.
We don't have specific information regarding the number of weeks needed for it to finish maturing in spring. Insect development is highly temperature-dependent, so in a warmer spring these moths could emerge a bit earlier than during a colder spring. You can use the dates on the photos and seasonality chart on that Maryland Biodiversity Project link we shared previously to see when observers have found these adult moths in the past. Adults don't live a long time after emerging, so they likely won't have been around too much earlier than the first sightings, which appears to have been in early June according to their records.
For more online reading, you can search for the moth's scientific name (Anisota senatoria) in case different spellings and hyphenations of its common name make pages not turn up in search results. We don't have a list of particular references, but .edu and .org sites should have good info, and even some .net sites (like BugGuide.net, which is run by Iowa State University).
Miri
The life stage between caterpillar and adult for both moths and butterflies (plus several other types of insects) is called a pupa. The pupa of butterflies in particular is often referred to as a chrysalis, whereas for moths, it has no special name and is just referred to as a pupa. This could be because part of the root word for chrysalis is derived from the Greek word for "gold" (khrusos), and a number of butterfly species (especially in the tropics) have a chrysalis with golden, silvery, opal, or otherwise metallic-looking colors or spots. Moth pupae, in comparison, tend to be fairly dull and usually brown-black or tan-brown and a uniform color. Since butterfly pupae were more jewel-like, they became associated with chrysalis.
Many moths make a silken cocoon around their pupa for camouflage or protection against the elements, but not all. Butterfly caterpillars use silk when preparing to transform into their chrysalis (pupate), but they only use it to secure the chrysalis to the plant (or whatever structure they're using for support) and generally don't go any further than that. Some moth caterpillars pupate in the ground, as you noted for this species, so instead of a cocoon they just tunnel into the soil, wiggle around to make a little pocket of space, and pupate inside that chamber. Sometimes when kept captive they might just pupate "naked" and not in soil. Perhaps the soil texture was too loose or too dense for it to want to use it. It probably won't affect its ability to survive, though you may be able to gently bury it a few inches for insulation.
Insects being kept captive which spend the winter in a kind of hibernation should be overwintered in a chilly area, close to ambient temperatures outside or even in the fridge (not freezer). If outdoors, keep the cage sheltered from the worst of the weather and from waterlogging due to rain/snow; if indoors, use a breathable container in the fridge that can maintain a little bit of humidity without getting moldy. Put the container outside as the weather warms in spring so the moth can emerge "on time" based on environmental cues. Otherwise, kept inside in constant warmth, the moth may emerge too early. While the adults in this particular family of moths cannot eat, it would miss-out on the opportunity to mate if emerging too early when you can't let it go.
We don't have specific information regarding the number of weeks needed for it to finish maturing in spring. Insect development is highly temperature-dependent, so in a warmer spring these moths could emerge a bit earlier than during a colder spring. You can use the dates on the photos and seasonality chart on that Maryland Biodiversity Project link we shared previously to see when observers have found these adult moths in the past. Adults don't live a long time after emerging, so they likely won't have been around too much earlier than the first sightings, which appears to have been in early June according to their records.
For more online reading, you can search for the moth's scientific name (Anisota senatoria) in case different spellings and hyphenations of its common name make pages not turn up in search results. We don't have a list of particular references, but .edu and .org sites should have good info, and even some .net sites (like BugGuide.net, which is run by Iowa State University).
Miri
Thanks so much for the additional information & tips for a successful over wintering! That was very helpful. Most of the .edu & .org links I was looking at was geared towards pest control rather than providing life cycle information. I meant to attach photos of our pupa, when it last molted & now
Do you think this is naked pupation?
Best, Jean.
In this sense "naked" was simply referring to the lack of a cocoon (or in the case where a species doesn't make a cocoon, a lack of earthen cell or other camouflage), where the pupa is visible and not hidden. It's normal for pupae to start-out paler in color and darken as the exoskeleton hardens in the hours after the molt into a pupa.
Miri
Miri
