Another Florida Stinging Caterpillar: The Saddleback Caterpillar!

Look at those amazing spines. Aren't they something else?

I'm a bit of a sucker for dangerous animals and plants... and this one is no exception. I've previous written about Florida's stinging puss caterpillar... today we'll take a look at this week's visiting stinging caterpillar.

The saddleback caterpillar is not particularly dangerous, really, but it does sting like the dickens. Here's the rest of that fellow:

This lovely stinging caterpillar was discovered on one of my yard-long beans by the children. Fortunately no one bumped into him.

I love the way the saddle looks - really a beautiful creature.

The spines are also lovely. The saddleback caterpillar is like a little stinging assault vehicle.

They don't really do much damage to plants, fortunately, so I just leave them alone to grow up into moths and fly off to go make little stinging babies.

To wrap up, here's a little video I did of this particular saddleback caterpillar:


Florida is truly a weird and wonderful place. Even our poisonous caterpillars look cool.

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