Ce caterpillar identification

Basic steps: Answer one or more questions on right by clicking checkboxes. Repeat steps and narrowing down the possibilities. This caterpillar identification guide is easy to use and accurate.

Find out if your caterpillar is rare, or if it stings. Hey I found a caterpillar !

When I was young, we were always on the lookout for cool insects, especially cool caterpillars. I have been helping people ID specimens ever since I was a kid. Information on how to identify caterpillars and how to request help with identification from Wildlife Insight. This is usually rather straightforwar as most giant mystery caterpillars turn out to be . Here is a brief overview about some of the most common types of caterpillars and their characteristic features. Identifying a caterpillar can be a challenge.

Insects like craneflies, sawflies and beetles can have very caterpillar -like larvae. Here are a few examples: A sawfly larva , a syrphid fly larva , a beetle larva , and a .

I get this question a lot. I often know the answer. Post a photo of your mystery bug here and. Look for caterpillars on the underside of leaves of their host plants out of the way of predators. Some will hide during the day in shelters of leaves and grass and only feed at night.

They are fascinating to watch as they feed on their host plant. A caterpillar is the larval form of a butterfly or moth. There may not be much left of the . Surprisingly, most of the larval stages of butterflies and moths are simply unknown, and caterpillar photographs are very difficult to identify.

If you do NOT have a photograph or you do not want to create an account and submit your sighting, you can use our website to try to identify the species yourself. The Moths Count brief guide to caterpillars contains many colourful photographs and is very useful for identifying the species you are most likely to come across. Please be aware that the leaflet is a large file and so may take some time to download.

Most insect taxonomy has been performed using the adult forms, so basically the only sure way to determine the species of a caterpillar is to rear it through to the adult butterfly or moth, and then identify that. Although the caterpillars of many moth species are rather similar to each other, some caterpillars are easy to identify. Large White caterpillars on brassicas.

Both lepidopteran and symphytan larvae have eruciform body shapes. Use our handy ID guide to identify common UK caterpillars.

To identify adults, there are a range of great pictures here, here, and here. For an online key to family level, click here. Caterpillars of most species.