What is this caterpillar? I live in Northern Michigan. We have much snow on the...
I live in Northern Michigan. We have much snow on the ground and then it rain, warmed up and adjectives the snow disappeared. Two days later it snowed again. When I took the dog out for a amble I found all these caterpillars resting on the snow. These caterpillars were contained by an open nouns but around this open nouns are evergreens and woods. Cant get a wearing clothes picture. The body is small. It is about 1 inch but some are smaller. It is brown within color, smooth, segmented. About 1/4" from the head it have white stripes on the segments down respectively side, not the middle. The head is the size of the body, not enlarged. It have big eyes. The underbelly is a dull light green. I perceive is could be in the bagworm home but the pictures dont look right. Not a gypsy moth or the eastern tent caterpillar. Have not found a site on the web that help.
Answers: Trouble is, you have described a undamaged lot of caterpillars. If you can get to a voluminous bookstore like Borders, or probably the library, look for a book titled Caterpillars of Eastern North America by David L. Wagner, a Princeton Field Guide. It is the first and most comprehensive book of caterpillars so far written, about 500 page, and it should be in in that somewhere.
If you are into caterpillars, butterflies and moths, you need this book! I get mine on Amazon.com
If you have not tried these, a moral place on the Web to identify caterpillars is Bill Oehlke's Butterfly and Moth Caterpillars: Identification Guide. If you know the family of your caterpillar, you might try the Caterpillars of Eastern Forests website, click on the ethnic group name, and after view the thumbnails.