# Catapillar?



## dwdragon (Aug 14, 2008)

I found this catapillar crawling around in some moss I got from a co-worker a couple months ago. He brought the moss back from Mt. Hood because he knew I like moss. Hopefully he eats the pothos I put him near since it grows like a weed and not my suzi wong fern... Put him in my viv because there was no where in the moss container for him to setup a cocoon. I should say this viv has no frogs or other herps so for now it's a bug viv lol.

At any rate the picture is the best I could get with my crappy Kodak EasyShare....


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## boyaminalnurse (May 7, 2008)

He's beautiful. Whats his name? species? lol. Love the pic.


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## dwdragon (Aug 14, 2008)

That's the problem I don't know what he is and now that I've lost him in my viv I hope he isn't host plant specific. 

I'm going to think on it until tomorrow as I don't think he'll die in a day without food but I am probably going to put some of the moss with the plants (which I also have no idea what they are) in the viv. The viv has to be torn down anyways before I could ever put frogs in it so I may as well see if I can raise a catapillar lol.

For now I have no idea where he is I thought at first I might have hurt him in transport and he might be dead as he wasn't moving at all. But I walked away and sure enough he is no longer on the Pothos leaf I left him on. That picture was taken on one of the little plants from the moss that I used to move him to the viv on then I moved him from there to the Pothos (was hoping some nice big tasty leaves would be good for him) considering Pothos grows like a weed in my tank.


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## dwdragon (Aug 14, 2008)

Ok against my own advice I put the moss in the viv (again there are no frogs or herps in here yet and it has to be torn down anyways I've just been procrastinating).

So if that was his host specific plant he will have plenty as long as it doesn't die in there, since I can't find him to move him back to the container I had the moss in. I know not a good thing to introduce wild moss and temperate rain forest moss at that (even tho I'm not regulating temperatures and it gets pretty cold in there atm). But I would have felt horrible if I don't see him anymore and found out it was because I starved the poor guy. I forgot that most catapillars are host specific and was just making sure he had somewhere to hang a cocoon when ready.


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## salix (Mar 28, 2008)

Well, as you were the first to admit, it's not really an easy picture to see, but it just looks like a beetle grub to me.

When people find them buried in their lawns, they have problems. I can't see why they wouldn't also be munching away in the forest


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## dwdragon (Aug 14, 2008)

salix said:


> Well, as you were the first to admit, it's not really an easy picture to see, but it just looks like a beetle grub to me.
> 
> When people find them buried in their lawns, they have problems. I can't see why they wouldn't also be munching away in the forest


Yeah what makes me not think it is a beatle grub is for 1 it's visibily hairy. Most beatle grubs I've seen are very smooth. It is also sectioned like a catapillar and the head looks right. EDIT: Oh and it has little feet like things not legs like a mealworm but not sure how to describe it LOL but they run from almost front to back just not quite. I don't think it's a milipede or centipede I've seen those ugly things and this little guy is cute. (end edit) It has a very distinct pattern on the back and right about now I'm wishing I had one of those cameras to take pictures of very small creatures. The whole thing is mostly dark brown but on it's back it has light brown spots, 2 per section, with a little dot of black / dark brown in the middle of each light brown spot.

I thought about having a co-worker who has amazing camera skills and good cameras come over to the house but I'd probably end up having to tear the whole viv apart to find the little guy as I couldn't find him this morning. Mind you it's a 56 gallon tank and I'd be trying to find a 1/4" catapillar! LOL

We'll see what happens.


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## ~demon (Jan 1, 2009)

Could it be a cutworm?


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