Subject: Catalpa Worms?

From: Linas Kudzma <[email-masked]>
Date: 11 Jun 1996 13:32:39 GMT

Can anyone help with the identity of the following caterpillar:

Found on Catalpa trees in Alabama and locally referred to as 
"Catalpa Worms". Big yellow caterpillars with black stripes along 
back bordered by a mottled white and black pattern. Head and 
"horn" on backside are black.

Some are parasitized by wasps with the typical wasp cocoons on 
the back of affected caterpillars. I would think this is a Sphinx 
moth of some type. Anyone know the exact species? Thanks.

-- 
Linas Kudzma
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Doug Yanega)
Date: 11 Jun 1996 16:15:14 GMT

> moth of some type. Anyone know the exact species? Thanks.

Ceratomia catalpae, the Catalpa Sphinx. The parasite is Cotesia
[=Apanteles] congregatus, a Braconid wasp.
Cheers,

Doug Yanega     ([email-masked])
Illinois Natural History Survey, 607 E. Peabody Dr. 
Champaign, IL 61820  USA  (217) 244-6817 fax:(217) 333-4949
affiliate, University of Illinois Dept. of Entomology
  http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu:80/~dyanega/my_home.html
"There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is
    the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick

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From: [email-masked] (BillH10331)
Date: 17 Jun 1996 12:59:26 -0400

Doug, thanks for the ID on the Catalpa moth caterpillars.   They're
"mine", Linas asked for me.

--Bill